My Husband Sucks and This Inspires Me
By: Eir Thunderbird
Tags: Mental Health, Husband Wife Problem, Venting Club, Husband Wife Dispute, Venting Machine

It looks like I’m that kind of entrepreneur, after all — goes big, or goes home; I have decided in less than a month on Medium, to start my first publication.

My mental process was quite straight-forward. When I published my first story about my husband, as a calming mechanism for all the frustration I have collected since our last fight, I never thought there would be that many people — women and men, like — that would be curious to read about it. There’s no wonder then, the look on my face when I realized that this piece — which I wrote in less than an hour, has reached 1.5k in views and 1k in reads within two weeks. Personally, these numbers depict a pseudo-viral piece that should receive some attention. OK, at least from me.

Consequently, I did a bit of experimentation with other topics too, and to my surprise, even if they were way more comprehensive and studied, have received less interest. Writing in different publications has also helped me understand that the number of followers a publication has, does not guarantee anyone that a story will have a wonderful reach. Therefore, what started to look like a pattern to me, among my published work, was that whenever I was complaining about my husband, it seemed to bring more interested readers than when I was writing about fitness how-tos, writing, or mental health.

That was the turning point, where I was able to put my finger on it: people love strong emotions. They can easily relate to it. We all need to vent once in a while — including on things that might look like being childish from the outside. For example, why are you complaining that your boss doesn’t acknowledge your achievements and offers you that promotion (some would say, that you should just be happy you have a job during these days), or why are you moaning about your kid being all over you (some women would be happy to have a child), not to mention why would you whine about your husband (you can always divorce his ass) — well, it’s not that easy.

You just don’t call it quits whenever you please, because…well, we need to be reasonable and think about the problems in a context, rather than make it exclusively about us. Still, your emotions of frustration, disappointment, and anger, are very real. They should be dealt with in a healthy way. And what better way to do it, then shout it out in writing. Give a virtual punch in the face with a knock off story. Add a bit of sarcasm in it and a bit of self-humor and you’re up for a successful recipe.

This is your safe space, dear Writer. Here you can vent. Here you have just spill it all out so you don’t have to punch the asshole in the face and deal with the consequences. Here you can write in your name, under a pen name, or submit anonymous stories.

I bet there are thousands of Readers out there that can easily relate to your raw feelings. And during these tough times, we all need a good support system, because not everyone can afford mental health support.

So, without further ado, I invite you to enjoy my publication — The Venting Machine.