Healing Through Blogging: An Unexpected Sisterhood

Well, here I am. It has been a couple years since I began sharing our journey of my husband’s battle with severe depression and suicidal thoughts and attempts through blogging here on Her View From Home and on our personal blog. And in that time, I have been fortunate enough to witness the blogging world absolutely blowing up. New writers are emerging daily, stories are getting national attention from people who never believed they could make a difference, and healing is happening.

Why? Because blogging online allows us all to have a voice, a chance to help and connect with others who may be empathetic to our current situations.

Not everyone understands the healing we writers are experiencing. Some are annoyed by the “overshare” of information. And that’s okay; we are all entitled to our own likes, dislikes, and comfort zones. 

So if you don’t want to read our posts, then don’t. Our blogs make it to the people who need to read them.

Social media world can be pretty brutal at times. I actually had someone comment to me on a blog that I need to sit down and shut up because I clearly know nothing about suicide since my husband’s still alive. She wrote, “Anyone who really wants to commit suicide will succeed. Your husband is clearly just trying to get attention.” Wow. It hurt for a millisecond until I remembered to focus on the thousands of people we have helped to understand the reality of mental illness, not the one person hiding behind a computer and clearly struggling with something herself. So I chose to focus on the good. And as a writer, I know I’m not alone. Many of my blogger friends have been hurt by online negativity as well. I now have a very strict rule of never reading comments on public sites.

I believe words have both the power to heal and to hurt, so we must be just as careful with our fingers as with our tongues in this ever-changing world. We also have to learn to filter out the negativity from those who choose to allow it to consume their lives.

Here at my blogging home, we have a behind-the-scenes Facebook group where we are all able to know one another, share ideas, and support posts. It’s humbling and so beautiful to watch this sisterhood continue to grow. There are literally hundreds more writers in our sisterhood than were here when I began writing. This is where I’ve watched women gather up the courage to share their heartbreaks, terrors, triumphs, and mistakes with completely pure intentions of helping others and of healing themselves. This is where I’ve learned the true intentions of bloggers. So while social media world can be brutal, it can also be beautiful when you look at it as a way of supporting one another.

Online, you can do a search for anything you are going through and can likely find a brave blogger that has been in your situation and chose healing through sharing. And while sharing is not the comfort zone for everyone to heal, reading may be. Learning that others have been in your situation, or have shared a similar situation, can help all of us understand just how connected we all are. It can help us see we are not alone and we have others in this world who truly do get it. That’s why we share. Blogging is an unexpected sisterhood. And men are joining in lately too upon seeing the sharing and healing. It’s a social media epidemic I am 100% in support of. So blog on, ladies and gentlemen. And thank you for your willingness to share. To someone, you are a hero.

Please share in support if you are a blogger or are supportive of this blogging world. Be proud of being an “oversharer.”

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Articles by Bailey Koch

Bailey Koch

Bailey Koch is an advocate for those who can't easily advocate for themselves in every way. Married to her hottie hubby, whom has survived 5+ suicide attempts, and mom to two teenage boys, the oldest with High Functioning Autism and youngest with Epilepsy, Bailey is passionate about mental health and parenting through the messy realities. Additionally, Bailey is a Doctor of Special Education and works as an instructor at the University of Nebraska at Kearney preparing future special educators to be advocates for the learning of all. Bailey and her husband, Jeremy, have written and published two books. "Never Alone: A Husband and Wife's Journey with Depression and Faith" details their struggles with severe depression and the journey toward understanding their purpose, accepting help, and finding faith. "When the House Feels Sad: Helping You Understand Depression" is written for families, at a child's level, to open up a conversation about the reality of Depression. Follow their journey, the triumphs and the challenges, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/anchoringhopeformentalhealth and Instagram at @anchoringhopeformentalhealth.