The Impact of Telling Your Mental Health Story
Interview with Sierra Grandy
In today’s episode of Strength Beyond Struggle, we are talking about storytelling with Sierra Grandy. Sierra is a Keynote Speaker with Questify Your Life LLC, a Mental Health Advocate, a Law School Graduate, and a Neurodivergent Thought Leader. Join us as we unravel the power of telling your story. How it heals and hurts, and how you can use it to help yourself and those around you.
Sierra is not alone in their struggle.
Sharing Your Mental Health Journey is a Powerful Tool
The Impact of Telling Your Story on Mental Health
Study involved two randomized groups addicted to meth. The intervention group had 10 sessions of narrative therapy, while the control group received routine psychiatric care. The study documented a significant reduction in depression and anxiety scores in the group that told their story in a group setting. The control group did not see a similar reduction in depression and anxiety scores. However, the overall quality of life was not improved more in the narrative therapy group than the control group.
The researchers reviewed 18 recent studies and combined the results statistically in order to
measure the effectiveness of narrative based therapy for adults with mood disorders.
The study concluded narrative therapies appear effective for depression and to a lesser extent to bipolar disorder. “Narrative approaches to psychotherapy may constitute promising psychotherapeutic modalities for adults with mood disorders. However, these approaches are under-researched to date; ongoing research is justified to establish a more robust evidence base on the efficacy and effectiveness of narrative-based psychotherapies for mood disorders.”
The research findings included:
- 18% of the population will suffer a major depressive disorder at some point and 1% a bipolar disorder. Both conditions typically emerge in early-adulthood and affect jobs, social functioning, financial status, health and mortality. Risk factors include genetics, suffering a loss, psychosocial difficult, medical problems and traumas.
- Narrative therapy focuses on developing a story about your life and challenges and starts with the assumption that people are the experts on their own lives. It allows for a variety of approaches and is rooted in cultural context, personal meaning and social justice.
Why Telling Your Story is So Powerful for Your Mental Health?
‘Maybe I Shouldn’t Talk’: The Role of Power in the Telling of Mental Health Recovery Stories
Mental health ‘recovery narratives‘ are increasingly used within teaching, learning and practice environments. The mainstreaming of their use has been critiqued by scholars and activists as a co-option of lived experience for organizational purposes. But how people report their experiences of telling their stories has not been investigated at scale. We present accounts from 71 people with lived experience of multiple inequalities of telling their stories in formal and informal settings. A reflexive thematic analysis was conducted within a critical constructivist approach. Our overarching finding was that questions of power were central to all accounts. Four themes were identified: (1) Challenging the status quo; (2) Risky consequences; (3) Producing ‘acceptable’ stories; (4) Untellable stories. We discuss how the concept of narrative power foregrounds inequalities in settings within which recovery stories are invited and co-constructed, and conclude that power imbalances complicate the seemingly benign act of telling stories of lived experience.
Rewriting Your Life Story: All About Narrative Therapy – Psych Central:
First developed in the 1980s, narrative therapy is a form of psychotherapy based on the idea that a person’s identity and self-perception are made up of a huge number of connected narratives. Some of these stories may be helpful and others unhelpful — but they can all have a profound impact on your mental health and relationships.
Narrative therapy focuses on giving people the tools to re-author their narrative in a more balanced and compassionate way.
This usually starts with becoming aware of the stories you’ve absorbed and developed from:
- personal experiences
- social and political pressures
- cultural or religious beliefs
- pop culture
- media, books, and advertising
Depression is one example of a condition that may respond well to narrative therapy. Symptoms of depression that can sometimes be rooted in unhelpful stories include:
- feelings of worthlessness
- negative self-talk
- excessive guilt
Research from 2015Trusted Source indicates that narrative therapy can help people with depression emphasize positive experiences and develop kinder, more affirming stories about themselves.
Since narrative therapy is a relatively new form of therapy — only around 40 years old — research on its usefulness is currently limited.
The research that does exist indicates that narrative therapy can be effective for many conditions and situations, including:
- depression
- chronic pain
- grief
- post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- eating disorders
- conduct disorders
- parent-child conflict
However, the limits of this research make it hard to draw broad conclusions about how effective narrative therapy really is.
Another criticism of narrative therapy is that it involves complex terms and concepts, many of which are unique to this model. This could create a barrier to entry for some people, who may find it overwhelming or intimidating.
