Implementation of Expressive Writing Therapy Through Writing Diary Coping Anxiety in Children Victims of Covid-19

Abstract

Anxiety experienced by the child can be caused by bad life experiences, like the Covid-19 pandemic. This outbreak leads to the children's mental disorders seen from their changing behavior. This study examines the implementation of Expressive Writing Therapy through diary writing to cope with the child's anxiety of the victims of covid-19. The research method used was a literature study to discuss Expressive Writing Therapy through writing a diary. The data collection technique for this study was documentation through inanimate data sources, like the book of child anxiety, journal of expressive writing, and google scholar. The research showed that Expressive Writing Therapy through diary writing could decrease the level of child's anxiety since their parents passed away due to covid-19. Writing a diary can allow the child to channel their emotions into being more positive and sharpen their brain to be more active. Expressive writing is the way for the child to write freely, so there is no need to be afraid of it. Everything that is felt by the child, like the feeling of mad, happiness, and emotion due to the unpleasant incident, can be distributed into expressive writing. Thus, the child's anxiety can be tackled. Implementation of writing therapy with Islamic psychology becomes self-therapy to improve mental health.

The Effect of Expressive Writing Therapy on Reducing Stress Levels in Chronic Kidney Disease Patients Undergoing Hemodialysis at Undata Hospital

“…The results of this study are supported by Respati's research (2019) which states that expressive writing therapy can reduce physiological stress experienced by a person, this is because the therapy provided helps individuals develop a more positive and rational understanding of thoughts, feelings, and release inner pressures, someone to be able to develop better-coping strategies (13). Therefore expressive writing therapy is the right choice for healing media and improving mental health such as anxiety, depression, and stress, which is continuously disturbing because this therapy can provide a therapeutic effect on a person's emotions and facilitates expressing emotional feelings ( 14) (15).…”