The latest single from Brighton based singer song-writer Lauren Alex Hooper, titled “Honest”, which is also the name of her EP, is in her own words, “..a celebration of the honesty of the previous four songs, and being honest and authentic about who you are, even and especially when it’s hard.” As an individual who struggles with her own mental health, as so many of us do, she’s a long-time supporter of mental health organisations and an advocate for everyone being aware of and taking care of their physical, emotional and mental wellbeing. Lauren has always found writing – song-writing in particular – to be a great outlet for her thoughts and feelings and has written this first-person essay to share with our readers of how putting pen to paper has proven to be mentally and emotional helpful to and for her.

Lauren Alex Hooper finds peace by putting pen to paper – how writing can boost your mental health

I’ve been writing in various forms my whole life, basically for as long as I’ve been able to write. I think my parents still have the first ‘book’ I wrote at the age of about six. And once I started, I just never stopped. I wrote and wrote, stories of every kind. I loved disappearing into new worlds, playing pretend through different characters, and watching events unfold, waiting to see where the characters would end up and how they’d react.

At twelve, I wrote a twenty-thousand-word story – a novella apparently – when I was forced out of school by ongoing health problems. The physical symptoms, including fatigue, pain, and nausea, were awful but alongside those, I was usually alone and my brain wasn’t getting the stimulation it was used to. So I dived into writing, spending days researching the tiniest details and writing, writing, writing. Looking back, I was escaping the situation I was trapped in, living wild adventures despite being confined to my bed or the sofa.

Once recovered there was schoolwork to catch up on, friends to spend time with, and life to live. But still I wrote. I continued writing fiction, but I also experimented with fanfiction, essays, and poetry. I started writing songs because I loved to sing but it was an exploration more than anything at that point. But I think the reason that songwriting became so emotional for me – rather than just another form of writing – was the fact that I couldn’t find any music that I connected to, that felt real to me. There were songs and albums that I liked, of course, but I couldn’t relate to them. I’d always felt different but hearing so many songs that reflected my life in no way was very isolating. So, unable to find the songs that filled that hole that music and art so often fill, I decided to start writing them, writing the songs I wanted to hear. And I couldn’t help but think that, if I was in need of those songs, then there were probably others who felt the same and so maybe, one day, my songs could be helpful to them too.

For the first time though, I was writing about my own experiences and while it was terrifying, there was something so freeing about it. To start with, I was still pretty guarded, wrapping the truth in metaphors so that only I would know who or what the songs were about, on the off chance they made it out into the world. And that’s a perfectly good way to write. Not everyone wants to bare their soul. But for me, it was just the beginning. The more I practiced, the more songs I wrote… the more vulnerable I allowed myself to be, describing events and emotions in detail without smoothing over the edges that made them so real or trying to force them into being excessively relatable, a trap that’s so easy to fall into.

And over time, my struggles themselves were explored and explained: at twenty, I was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and several mental health problems including Depression and Anxiety. And while these were and are important in understanding myself and helpful in my day-to-day life – in managing the things I struggle with, getting support, developing strategies, and so on – I don’t think it had much impact on my songwriting. I was writing about the emotions and experiences and the various relationships in my life. Our thoughts and feelings are so complex and intangible and turning them into something real and understandable was all that I wanted to do. And the feeling of finishing a song that perfectly describes a feeling, with the perfect words in the perfect order, with music that sounds like the emotion you’re experiencing… for me, there’s no better feeling in the world. Putting science and rationality aside for a second, those moments are the only moments when I feel completely in sync with the universe, like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.

I don’t exclusively write about mental health but when it came time to start releasing music, there seemed to be very few songs around that I connected with, that described my experience of not being listened to, of having my difficulties invalidated. And so my debut single was called, ‘Invisible,’ where I described that experience in detail, from feeling like I was wired wrong to being told that maybe there wasn’t an explanation for why I struggled so much to developing self harm as a coping mechanism. I laid it all out for everyone to hear and it was the most liberating experience of my life.

And now, two and a half years later, I’ve just released the final single of my first EP, Honest. The single, the title track of the EP, is probably my most honest song yet, detailing where I am in my life but also celebrating the openness with which I approach my life and my struggles, especially through my writing. Translating it all into words and music helps me to make sense of what I experience and, in some ways, let it go because once it exists as a song, I don’t have to carry the full weight.

‘Honest’ celebrates the relief there is to be found in leaning in to who you truly are but, as the last single, it also celebrates the honesty of the previous four tracks on the EP: the hopelessness in ‘Bad Night,’ the desperation in ‘Clarity,’ the tentativeness of ‘Sounds Like Hope,’ and the realisations in ‘Back To Life.’ Finishing with ‘Honest,’ the EP follows this particular journey in my mental health – one of many, I’m sure – but it also acts as a reminder for myself, and hopefully those who hear something of themselves in it: a reminder that honesty is not something to be afraid of but something to be empowered by, however you choose to express it.

Give “Honest” a listen below and for more information on Lauren Alex Hooper, visit her website, give her page a like on Facebook or follow her on Twitter.