I don’t think anger is always a bad thing, especially in a personal essay.

Communicating and reflecting on my feelings and experience is a path to mental health — for me anyway. But I appreciate your message. When…

I don’t think anger is always a bad thing, especially in a personal essay. If this were a piece of journalism, maybe avoiding profanity would be the right way to convey information without alienating. But this is a piece of narrative nonfiction. It’s personal, and confessional, and therefore it’s raw. I don’t mind if it puts a few people off — my selfhood and subjective experience will put a few people off. That’s how it goes.

Communicating and reflecting on my feelings and experience is a path to mental health — for me anyway. But I appreciate your message. When I make the choice to swear in a piece, it is good that I remain mindful of the impact that can have.