Journaling has helped me a lot with my depression.
Sometimes I feel like the thoughts are swimming in my head and I'll explode. Even though seeing my pen form the words, it helps me clear my head. It'll calm me down and oftentimes keeps me from crying before bed. Also, it's difficult for me to talk about it with my friends, extremely difficult. I have found it's help me to open up. Once I figured out how to put the words together I began to get comfortable talking about it with friends.
Hope that helps