How many find it comforting to write in a journal?

How many people find it helpful to write about their day?

I have done this before and I don't think I did it long enough to know if it worked. I tend to be more dramtic as I replay things in my head.

Thank you,

Chandra

I do find it helpful.

It's cathartic (fancy word for purging your emotions).

It also helps me realize what I did and didn't do each day.

I like it as well. I keep two journals. One for day to day and the other to record the dreams and flashbacks from past abuse. Both journals help me.

Yes, I too, like recording my day. It gives me a place to gather my thoughts.

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I enjoy writing in my journal, not sure why, it's just relaxing.

I don't do that. My mother encourage me to do it when I was very little, that's about it.

I'm a bit paranoid when it comes to my own security/privacy, I need an outlet though.

I tried to do it several times, but every single time I stopped because I was afraid someone will see it and know all my thoughts and feelings. How do you guys handle this concern by the way?

For me it depends. I thought it helped a lot when I started back in college. But then it felt like it was less and less helpful, until I hardly wrote anymore. Now I feel like the whole document is nothing but complaints and whining which kind of gets me down. Maybe I should have focused more on the positive stuff going on, but between depression and anxiety I'm not really surprised that it ended up the way it did.

Some days I just want to delete all traces of it because it contains a LOT of stuff that I'd never tell a soul and has the potential to destroy me. But then other days I really feel like going back to it, so I'll write a new entry -- especially about stuff that I simply cannot share with anyone, anywhere.

I dunno. Maybe I'm just doing it wrong.

I personally found it very destructive and made me a lot worse, so I stopped doing it. Not only for the reasons already given above but because the depths of my anguish were there in writing as a reminder of how ill I was. I hated having it in the house, even though I hid it. Eventually I destroyed it and stopped keeping one. I find creative writing a lot more helpful. But that's just my experience, you may find it different. Good luck, whatever you decide.

I used to do this, was a long time ago. Then I realized my mom had been reading it, and I felt so invaded. I find this the most helpful place to put my thoughts, because of the anonymity of it. I've tried saving a daily journal on my computer, but again, it's the privacy thing. What about if someone stumbles on it, finds it, and I've died and they see all my thoughts. Thoughts and feelings change so much, sometimes it doesn't even help to look back anyways.

I'm actually the opposite. I will end up writing on something negative and it will build as I'm writing and get worse. It's better for me to just let it go and not even write about it.

i do, but i have to stick with positive thinking in it. once i start writing the bad things it all tends to spiral. for a while last year i was doing morning pages every day? that only lasted about three weeks because eventually i would start my day going over traumatic events in great length just to fill space on the pages. braindumping isnt for me. all that occupies my subconscious are ugly unthinkable things. but when i am honest, not in a negative spiral way but just being genuine and writing about events, i appreciate it later on. its kind of fun to go through old journals and know everything i was thinking. and it also ensures that my timeline is sound. i know the things i remember are real because i wrote them down.

It helped me a lot at one point. It helped me organize my thoughts and helped me remember what I wanted to talk to T about. When my depression is bad it's hard to even write let alone admit what I am feeling. My daughter just gifted me a beautiful journal. I am writing again and hope I can stick with it.

OK, this is but your name (Chandra) is the name I gave our daughter almost 38 years ago. I have always loved that name.

Now about journaling.......I don't do a very good job of it because I remember too many details or not enough & I find it boring to write down all the things I've done during a day & I can never think back & remember thoughts I have unless I write them at the moment I have them.

HOWEVER.....the DBT group I was in for 2 years required the DBT thing similar to journals called Diary Cards.....LOL....the day before group, I would look back at my calendar from the week & try to remember everything I had done & try to remember the feelings & thoughts....that defeated the purpose of the exercise.

Honestly I wish I had kept a journal from 1994-2007 because it's a totally black hold time of my life & remember just a few little bits & pieces. It would have been nice to have kept at least notes....but then again, glad I didn't because I wouldn't want to relive those years even reading about them.

It's useful in that moment, but troublesome afterwards.

I don't keep track of daily events, though it might be useful if I could. I tend to only use my journal when I'm feeling really crazy and need an outlet and don't have anyone to help me. For some reason, it seems to keep things at bay. I don't really re-read earlier entries, though, because I think it would be depressing.

I find it comforting but I rarely have a lot of things to write about.

Thank you all for your replies. I actually don't have privacy issue with it, I really don't care what people know about me. My issue is looking back seeing how sick I was. I have a very vivid memory, so maybe creative writing might be a good idea. I used to write all the time. So once again thank you very much for all the replies!

I've always had an insatiable urge to write. I wrote a lot as a teenager and into young adulthood. My brother read me journal -grrr, but now so many years later, forgivable. Then my ex dug into them one night and started throwing my own most personal thoughts and feeling in my face every time we had a disagreement. It was awful. Actually, he was awful.

So I stopped. I burnt 90% of what I had written for almost 20 years, including story ideas, letters never sent, and the like.

Finally I came up with an idea. I got a leather binder with an extra long leather cord that I would tie in a specific and personally unique knot. That way if ever anyone broke into it, I would at least know.

Then life got busy. I changed. Started losing track of who I was and fell out of the discipline.

Finally I left that very bad man/boy and eventually met a good man. I told him straight away that he was never to read my journal and I would never read his without express permission. Funny thing is, I trust him implicitly. And, honestly, there's nothing I have to write that I wouldn't tell him anyway. Bad thing, I was so happy for so many years, I stopped writing again.

Now, as life is presenting me with a lot more, um, "challenges" (understatement of the decade ), I find myself turning to just basic word files that I keep in a non-descript folder on my PC. I write when I feel like I'm going to burst. When the emotions, frustration, pain, sadness, whatever...gets so bad that I can't think straight, I just let it go. Sometimes it's a letter to a person. Sometimes, a forum post that I think better of posting publicly, but want to save for myself. Sometimes it's is an honest diary of what I did, what the weather is like and so on. Sometimes, I immediately delete what I wrote - that can feel very good, BTW. Just depends.

For years I was afraid to be honest in writing, because of how it could and would be used against me. But I just think better if I literally spell something out. It is cathartic and it is freeing in that sense that once you get whatever is poisoning you out into words, it doesn't feel as toxic any more.

So long as it's not online. Write whatever you're feeling, on paper or in a doc. Then if it's negative and you want to be rid of those emotions, delete it or burn in. If it's something you think you might want to come back to later, save it. Your journal is yours. Until I stopped worrying about what everyone else might think, I was stuck. Finally, I just didn't care anymore.

Just don't draw much attention to it if you really want to keep it private. I have a rule now. If my dog doesn't like you or you read my journal. You. Are. Nothing. To. Me.

I entirely agree.

I have practiced journalling most of my adult life. I admit it is very cathartic. But I look back at the most depressing times of my life and realise I was spending a great deal of time writing endlessly about negativity. I truly believe this is what made my last bout of depression so unbearable I was hospitalized. I was 'ordered' to stop journalling.

So what do I do instead? I still write.

I have taken up creative writing. Poetry mostly. It forces me to thinkout what I am writing about and, even if it is not such happy subject matter, it is short and succint. No more endless pages of harping on a single event or idea.

I have taken up letter writing. It is enjoyable, and beneficial. I tend to be more cheery too. I write a lengthy letter every day. It is so much better away to keep in contact with my friends than Facebook or email.

In the meantime I have tossed the hundred plus journals I had kept. I just couldn't bear it. Any page I opened up to was so depressing and negative.

I still write my thoughts out on files on my computer. I sometimes look back on them to see what worked and what didn't. I don't put a lot of emphasis on the past.

I also write poetry. I put some of it out on the Internet and some I keep to myself.