MESA, AZ (AZFamily) — As anxiety and other mental health struggles rise among young people, a program at the Mesa Arts Center is helping students process their emotions through poetry and creative writing.
The program, called LIT Ink, teaches students in grades 5 through 12 how to use storytelling and poetry to work through challenges like anxiety, grief, heartbreak and trauma. The free 24-week program ends with the “LIT Ink: Picture This Showcase.”
For instructor Diana Resendiz, writing is more than a creative outlet. She said poetry helped save her life nearly 20 years ago.
“I stopped being able to focus. I stopped sleeping. I couldn’t stop crying randomly. I would get anxiety attacks that eventually turned into panic attacks,” Resendiz said.
Resendiz said her mental health struggles eventually led to a suicide attempt, hospitalization and inpatient treatment. After she was diagnosed with clinical depression and received medication, writing became part of her therapy.
Decades later, Resendiz is a published author. Her poetry book, “Postcards from the Desert,” was created from old diaries and notebooks.
“As I’m reading through everything, it slowly turned into almost like a love letter to myself, to my younger self,” Resendiz said.
Now, she is using that experience to help young people find their own voices.
“It could be a confusing time because you’re going from a teenager to adulthood. And for me, that was the toughest time growing up,” Resendiz said.
Students in the program spend weeks learning how to express themselves through writing.
“Honestly, it’s hard for me to really say what’s on my mind. So, I feel like writing would help others and help myself at the same time,” said Liliana Gutierrez, a seventh grader.
For Arisa Valenzuela, a high school senior, poetry became a way to process the loss of her father, who died when she was 11.
“I love to talk, but really talking about my feelings wasn’t the easiest, especially in my household,” Valenzuela said.
Valenzuela wrote a poem called “Conversations We Never Had” in honor of her father. She later read it at his gravesite, describing the moment as a form of closure.
“My first poem that I published with this program was about how my relationship with my dad’s family affected me and how they kind of were after he died,” Valenzuela said. “So I just think it was closure between me and him and the fact that I was not only able to write it, but share it.”
Resendiz said sharing personal writing can help students feel seen and validated.
“It helped me process. And then eventually, once I started sharing, I felt like it helped me feel like that happened. And now I can do something positive with it,” Resendiz said.
The LIT Ink program is free for Arizona students in grades 5 through 12. Applications open every spring through the Mesa Arts Center website.
The National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available 24 hours a day by calling or texting 988.
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