As a personal favor before you start reading this or click the link for the rest of the article guess–based on the title–what publication it is from–KSH<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Self-medication may be the reason the blogosphere has taken off. Scientists (and writers) have long known about the therapeutic benefits of writing about personal experiences, thoughts and feelings. But besides serving as a stress-coping mechanism, expressive writing produces many physiological benefits. Research shows that it improves memory and sleep, boosts immune cell activity and reduces viral load in AIDS patients, and even speeds healing after surgery. A study in the February issue of the Oncologist reports that cancer patients who engaged in expressive writing just before treatment felt markedly better, mentally and physically, as compared with patients who did not.<\/p>\n
Scientists now hope to explore the neurological underpinnings at play, especially considering the explosion of blogs. According to Alice Flaherty, a neuroscientist at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital, the placebo theory of suffering is one window through which to view blogging. As social creatures, humans have a range of pain-related behaviors, such as complaining, which acts as a \u201cplacebo for getting satisfied,\u201d\u009d Flaherty says. Blogging about stressful experiences might work similarly.<\/p>\n
Flaherty, who studies conditions such as hypergraphia (an uncontrollable urge to write) and writer\u2019s block, also looks to disease models to explain the drive behind this mode of communication. For example, people with mania often talk too much. \u201cWe believe something in the brain\u2019s limbic system is boosting their desire to communicate,\u201d\u009d Flaherty explains. Located mainly in the midbrain, the limbic system controls our drives, whether they are related to food, sex, appetite, or problem solving. \u201cYou know that drives are involved [in blogging] because a lot of people do it compulsively,\u201d\u009d Flaherty notes. Also, blogging might trigger dopamine release, similar to stimulants like music, running and looking at art.<\/p>\n