In need of writing inspiration? Start with chronicling your dysfunctions.

We are all a little fucked in the head from time-to-time... 'Sanity is a cozy lie' as Susan Sontag has observed.

The idea that anyone (let alone the self-help professionals) has a completely fulfilled, stable and structured existence is a complete myth. Being dysfunctional is the norm, not the exception. It's how people deal with personal dysfunctions that matters.

You're likely to be one of two kinds of people:
-one who embraces, processes and communicates their idiosyncratic dysfunction or:
-one who emphatically denies dysfunctions or stubbornly refuses to acknowledge personal dysfunctions.

Now, what I'm suggesting (and am not the first to suggest) is that your particular dysfunction or collection of dysfunctions could be of use. According to the French novelist, Marcel Proust; "Everything great in the world comes from neurotics". Our neuroses make us interesting (think Salvador Dali). So, why not communicate these dysfunctions? Why not spread them as far as possible for all to see? What's to be afraid of?

It would appear that being able to organise our dysfunctional experiences into a narrative is beneficial. Journaling "forces us to transform the ruminations cluttering our minds into coherent stories" with the potential to "draw each persons life toward a wholeness at its own tempo." Being able to spew out our dysfunctions upon the screen, or paper in front of us forces us to explore not only what dysfunctional behavioral traits we harbor, but also how we could overcome them ourselves without purchasing any one of the myriad self-help diatribes currently available.

Here's an example of just one personal dysfunction which I recorded some two months ago.

WHY AM I DYSFUNCTIONAL TODAY:

I didn't get out of bed and do any kind of productive activities until around 11am... AGAIN!

WHY?!
Because I can -at times all too frequent- be a lazy and dysfunctional son of a bitch. Why -I wonder- do I behave this way? Unhappiness, no... Disillusionment, possibly. Unwillingness to participate in frustrating, tedious, mundane and boring tasks... Definitely!

WHAT WOULD MAKE IT BETTER:

Getting the fuck out of bed earlier and finding something worth doing.

Now, this isn't exactly problem solved for me. I do still have a habit of sleeping in. However, I have begun doing much more of the things that I find personal gratification in doing; thus helping me to feel far less lazy and ever so slightly less dysfunctional.

So piss off and go write about your dysfunctions too...