I do journal--the "morning pages" from The Artist's Way someone else mentioned. I took a class that focussed on the book & found writing in the morning--free association--helped clear up my head before starting the day.

I've been keeping a journal on & off since I was a teenager & suffered my first deep depression. I do go back & rip out some of the pages. I don't want my children to read them & realize how sad I was.

My mother wrote lots of letters to my father when she fled the country (he was going to get her involuntarily committed to a mental institution--very bad case of bp) & for some reason he kept them & passed them on to me after she committed suicide. They were full of rants about how much she hated us kids & that I was a ***** (because I had a boyfriend). They were very disturbing, to say the least, so I don't ever want to expose my kids to my negative moods. I've never written anything bad about them, but I just don't want them to know how much I have suffered with the bp depression.--Suzy