How writing to heal can help harness your voice, maintain your equilibrium, and stay strong in these uncertain times
By Michele DeMarco, PhD, author of Writing the Wrongs
It seems the only thing that Americans can agree on is that the election is causing overwhelming distress. More than seven in ten adults said the future of the nation (77 percent) is a significant source of stress in their lives (across party lines), with the economy (73 percent) and the 2024 US presidential election (69 percent) following closely behind, according to a recent survey by the American Psychological Association (APA). This is up nearly 10 percent from the 2020 election. What’s more, 41 percent report that the state of the nation has made them consider moving to a different country, and the majority is worried that the election results will lead to political violence.
It is not only psychological stress that is plaguing our society; moral distress and moral injury are also rampant. Moral distress is the feeling that we’ve had to compromise ourselves or something we hold dear due to external forces seemingly beyond our control. It’s also the sense that others don’t grasp a moral significance or moral imperative that is clear to us. Moral distress is what results from repeatedly not having our values respected, either individually or collectively.
A more severe form of moral pain is moral injury—which happens when our core moral foundations are violated in high-stakes situations. This violation recasts the way we see ourselves, others, and the world—and can cause changes in behavior that signal a loss of trust, connection, self-worth, and meaning.
Struggling with either form of moral adversity often involves a range of emotions such as shame, guilt, anger, disgust, contempt, resentment, despair, grief, remorse, worthlessness, hopelessness, helplessness, powerlessness, alienation, self-loathing, and hate. Sometimes, after a while, we might even stop feeling anything at all.
Moral distress and moral injury can also have long-term consequences such as burnout, exhaustion, numbness, disconnection, inability to connect with others, decreased empathy, and diminished moral sensitivity (also called “compassion fatigue”). In their extreme, they can result in “otherizing.” For instance, in the same study, 46 percent of respondents say they wouldn’t date someone who didn’t share the same political opinions. This raises the issue of “social sorting,” a term social scientists use to describe the phenomenon of groups self-isolating based on ideology and identity, to dangerous—either-or, us-versus-them—politics, with people more willing to act on disgust and bias.
Betrayal by leaders is also significant—no matter the side of the political divide. Most adults (54 percent) say they have little to no trust in the US government. More to the point, many people feel that leaders are failing to maintain a society that provides structure, safety, and trust—that they’re dropping the ball, breaking promises, abdicating responsibilities, and even allowing or encouraging the betrayal of basic rights and the foundations of our society. The first definition of moral injury by Johnathan Shay was, “a betrayal of what’s right, by someone who holds legitimate authority (e.g., a leader), in a high stakes situation.”
Writing your way to moral resilience and “soul” relief
In my new book, Writing the Wrongs, I offer a gentle yet powerful, science-backed writing program to help you transform moral pain into moral resilience. It is well documented that recalling and renegotiating a traumatic story is considered an important component of the healing process. It’s also well documented that expressing one’s deeper thoughts and feelings through writing can result in significant physical and psychological health benefits in the short and long term.
Writing the Wrongs leverages embodied disclosure therapy (EDT)—a writing therapy I developed that integrates body awareness into the writing process to overcome the challenges of expressive writing and other exposure-based writing therapies that use fast-paced, explosive, “let-it-all-go” writing, often causing anxiety, rumination, or overwhelm—and the imaginal writing paradigm (I also developed for this book) to safely and creatively explore the values, beliefs, and experiences that may be contributing to a person’s moral pain and holding them back.
While moral injury was first identified in veterans and warfighters, and moral distress with nurses, three decades of research shows that these natural human struggles can be experienced by and live within us all. Moral values and the identities that sustain our relationships (and societies) are the most important aspects of our lives; they constitute what is most important, even sacred in us. Our sense that we are worth something and connected to others lies at the core of our relationships to them and the world. The violation of that worth is an act of desecration.
As a society, moral dilemmas confront us daily—and with the explosion of technology and social media, they are growing in magnitude and becoming increasingly hard to ignore. Stakes for elections have never been higher. Many people find it hard or impossible to even speak about the existential outcomes.
Becoming saturated in rage, consumed by contempt, imprisoned by powerlessness, and inured to moral pain or injury is not a sustainable or healthy option. It is incumbent that we turn to moral resilience as a much-needed antidote. Writing the Wrongs will help you remain on the path of integrity and wholeness.
Michele DeMarco, PhD, is an award-winning writer, and a therapist, clinical ethicist, and trauma researcher specializing in moral injury. She is author of the Psychology Today blog, Soul Console, and one of Medium’s Top Writers for Mental Health and Health, respectively. Her writing has appeared in national and international publications, including The New York Times, POLITICO, The Boston Globe, The Daily News, Psychology Today, The Free Press, The War Horse, and Medium, among others.
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