I've been keeping a journal on & off for many years, but I go through them periodically & throw stuff out that I wrote when very depressed or angry. The reason I do this is that my mother didn't keep a journal, but she wrote letters to my father when she had left the country (she found out my father was going to have her involuntarily committed in a mental institution & fled-- she should have been committed). For some reason he kept these letters & we (the children) found them in his effects after he died. They contained some horrible passages about how much she hated her children (us), that I was a ***** (I was only 15 when she died) , etc. Needless to say these were very painful to read & triggered all sorts of painful memories & emotions in me & my siblings. I know I've written some things about myself in my depressions that I would never want my children to see, so that's why I end up throwing stuff out. I never wrote bad things about my kids, but I did write some harrowing passages about contemplating suicide, etc.