[Achy Turtle Armor]

Just wondering how many of you journal? How often do you journal? Do you journal during good and bad times? What do you journal in? Do you keep you old journals? Finally, have you ever shown your journal to anyone?

I'll go first...

I would say that I journal daily at the moment. Actually several times a day. It seems the worse I am doing the more I journal so I think I journal mostly in bad times. I have journals that are 25 years old. Most of my journals take place between the years 2001 and 2007. Those have been the hardest years of my life. I use to journal in various notebooks. My favorite is Moleskine because they are good quality and have pockets in them.

***trigger***SI***
Finally, I have shown my journals to my old T. I was surprised he was interested in seeing them after I told him how much blood I had smeared over the pages. Because of these bloody pages I find it difficult to look back at them without triggering myself. Lately I've been using an app to journal which was hard to get use to but I'm loving it now... Especially with swype. Wondering if my current T would want to read my recent writings or if maybe I'll read a page to him...

[JadeAmethyst]

Hi AchyT
Journals are great for any reason or rhyme IMO, or anytime. I can only imagine what it would be like to show mine to anyone, you are a brave soul to share your work, insight and bare naked thoughts! Kudos to you.
I was introduced to journaling in the 7th grade English class. lol. Loved that I had a private place for my private thoughts. Yes, I still journal to this day, no I don't share them with anyone. I have kept a few for the drawings or poetry, but usually at the end of the year I tear them up in pieces and cast them to the wind....letting it all go.
I use the 94 cent black and white composition books.
Have tried using my computer, but love to use my writing tools in real life so much.
Some things are just sacred space, for eyes only.

Good post, thanks.
Jade

[ifst5]

Journals are a great idea and for good practical reasons too. They allow us to have an accurate record of dates and events - great for people with not so great memory like myself. I've taken to scrap-booking lately as well. Well, my definition of scrap-booking anyway. It's nice to have an interesting/inspiring collection of images in a book that I can use for self soothing as well as a positive distraction.

I'm glad you find journaling helpful

[Kimaya]

I don't keep a journal, but I do behavioral tracking on a spreadsheet. I find it helps me to see how I was responding to meds, or what sorts of triggers precipitated acting out (missing work).

I find my thoughts hard to form cohesively enough to write down without getting frustrated and erasing them... my ideas and values are often contradictory as I struggle to work out what is correct and what is false which I spend a large amount of time doing/thinking. And my days are too boring to write down really, in detail, ha!

Also, I am an artist and usually spend time doing art things rather than writing. I like the scrapbook idea...I suppose it might be a good idea for cathartic reasons... something to consider anyway.

[Trippin2.0]

I have a journal, but I don't "journal"....

I only use it during bad times, its mostly used to spew the venomous filth I want to direct at my bf.

This has helped tremendously in me not having fullblown bpd *****fits, they're semi *****fits now, and are less frequent too.

Reading through the vitriol for a few days gives me time to think about what I'm thinking and feeling regarding bf. Gives me time to weigh my written reaction BEFORE bringing up whatever it is with bf. Sometimes I realize there's nothing to bring up, its purely my stuff that I was once again about to make him pay for...

I used to journal on and off in the past but always ended up ripping out the pages and then setting them on fire. Been a tradition from the age of 15, as I could never reconcile that person on paper with myself.

[Lefty_Mac]

i did somewhat started a journal. it's my website, done since three days ago, where i talk about music, sex, life, my thoughts, my feelings, a bit of blogging, a bit of record reviewing, and even give away vinyl rips of rare records if the visitor answer a question and mail me - for free, and not through any sharing service. But it's in it's second page and has its first blog entry - i'll probably go there to talk a bit, makes me feel relieved.

here it is - Lefty Mac's BPD Bonanza

(if the font is hard to read, just press ctrl+ to enlarge it - i'm not giving it all away easily. and yeah, i don't spell check and sometimes chunks of text mix with others. just a little. )

I tried as a teen but my mother got hold of it and gleefully discussed it with my girlfriend.

Now I'm too scared to write anything because of the worry of having her invading my life any further. If that means bottling it all up then so be it.

Sheesh, I even get paranoid writing here.