[needamommy]

I am new here, and reading all of your posts has had a very profound impact on my recovery!

Question.....I would like to journal more, but I am afraid of someone seeing it. I cant be totally open when I have this fear. I know there are locked journals, but seems they can be easily opened if someone is determined.

Guess I am paranoid.....

[Wren_]

hi, welcome to PC

I use an online journal that says it has military grade encryption on the password locking (following suggestions from a PC thread i had about journals once)

I'm still a bit wary though about what I put there so I understand your concern

[Yoda]

I used microsoft word and chose password protection when I saved.

[doyoutrustme]

I have a super privatized blog. You can watch your stats to make sure no one is reading (just make sure it isn't counting your own hits)

[gma45]

I have had this same fear for some time now. I still can't get myself to write much.

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by needamommy

I am new here, and reading all of your posts has had a very profound impact on my recovery!

Question.....I would like to journal more, but I am afraid of someone seeing it. I cant be totally open when I have this fear. I know there are locked journals, but seems they can be easily opened if someone is determined.

Guess I am paranoid.....

I use my computer writing program and other times i use good old paper and pen and lock it in my safe just like I do my gun and ammo, and other personal objects that have monetary or sentimental value. I also have a safety / security box with my bank that I use for documents, journals and anything else I want to protect and have copies of.

[Perna]

Sometimes I journal on my clipboard and put it in a 3-ring binder; if you are in school, you could intersperse pages in a/notebook(s) used for school so no one would be curious? Code the dates or something so only you know what it really is (so it doesn't look sequential).

I would also maybe fold pages in half and put them in the back of uninteresting books or other hiding places. I know I ended up with a lot of journals at one point and read through them and consolidated the "best" information I wanted to keep into a "new" journal and then destroyed the old ones. Over the years there is a lot of repetition and not "important" or interesting stuff?

[needamommy]

Thank you everyone for the suggestions!

Tigergirl - could you tell me how to find that secure online site?

[avlady]

I kept journals for over 10 years in notebooks, but haven't done it in over 5 years now, i don't feel the need anymore, but may decide to start up again

[healingme4me]

When I was a teenager, both sets of my parents read mine. I come from a divorced background. I can appreciate your concern. It was in many ways, a most traumatic event. As anyone can imagine.

One thing, I tend to do, is destroy old journals. I keep, certain pages, from those, in a file cabinet, that I can lock. I'm not, at a point, of worrying about my handwritten journals being read, not at this point in my life. My computer, requires a password to get into my account, where anything I keep on it, is. And the one I have on my phone, also, has a password.

I've been journaling on an off, mainly on, for 30 years.

[stillhiding]

I set up a separate email account just for journalling, I save the entries to my drafts folder!

[Perna]

One can journal on one's computer, just name it something boring and put it in a boring file with other boring stuff so no one suspects it is a journal

[eskielover]

I wish I had journaled in the past because between 1994 & 2003, my whole life is a huge black hole with no way of recreating what happened during those years.....& I know there were a lot of suicide attempts & hospitalizations.....mixed in with dog showing & dressage horse riding & showing......but that summary is really all the details I even remember.

I am trying to put the emotions together & am so much better understanding why my reaction were that way.....& I don't think I was even aware of that understanding at the time.....couldn't see the forest for the trees so to speak....but leaving the bad marriage has opened up a lot in that area....just now specific memories

Journaling is really a good idea....I live completely alone so no worries about anyone finding anything I write in the now.

I found a really nice journal app for my iPad that requires a password. It's working well for me.

[jan16th]

I am left handed, old school and use a plain paper notebook. Only difference is I write my entries in cursive writing BACKWARDS. Leonardo Da Vinci kept notebooks and wrote his entries backwards. It takes practice, and I find that the concenration needed to write and visualize helps my thinking skills. Hope you will try it

[Odee]

I just put my journal inside my desk when I used it last summer. I'm 21 and have my own room, living away from my parents and they are the only ones I am concerned would go out of their way to read it. (asses as they are.) My BF asked about it before, asked what I was writing or if he could read, lol. I told him that would ruin the point of it. He respected that perfectly and it was all fine.

I can't stand journaling on the computer. I feel like we can all use less screen time to help us recover. Writing with a pen, creating physical letters, to me just feels so much more therapeutic and solid.

[1SadGypsy]

Originally Posted by 1914sierra

I found a really nice journal app for my iPad that requires a password. It's working well for me.

That is a good idea. I will have to look into it. I am journaling in a regular notebook. I just trust my husband not looking at it. And I actually believe he does not look at it.

[tinyrabbit]

I use livejournal.com and make all my entries private.

[vrba44070]

In high school I wrote backwards. My parents were too wrapped up in deciding to divorce or not to bother w/ my brother and me.
when I was in my twenties an abusive boyfriend read my journal and there was a part he read about me being attracted to someone else (little wonder). so I started to make collages instead. now I'm using Word to journal. I trust my husband not to read it. He respects me. so I'm not worried about it, but I still make collages.

[MrNisThinking]

I recommend using Google Drive I'm unsure account the encryption but Google has very good security processes and as long as you have a secure password (my old one was 3U6UXAL1YN) no one could hack it and you'd be safe. I'm always very nervous when it comes to writing important stuff down and I prefer my notes to be password protected...

[tealBumblebee]

You know, I stopped writing in my journal sometime in high school, got sick of people reading my stuff or even me reading over them and seeing how horrible I was, so I would write them out and then take them to the porch and (in a flower pot) set them on fire. It was one way to ensure no one would read it, AND it made me feel better to watch the horribleness burn away.

Only downfall is, lately i've been wanting to read over somethings since i've lost most of my past memories and well, theres no where to find them anymore

[MrNisThinking]

That's why you should use Google Drive...

Sent from my SPH-L300 using Tapatalk 4

[refika]

I journal using microsoft word and save the files on my hard drive. I live by myself and I'm the only one with access to my computer.

When I was younger, I had a spiral notebook I hid in my room...until my sister found it and told my mother what she read. That was fun...NOT! After I moved out and got married, I started journaling again, but using the computer. When I lived with my husband, I would password protect my stuff in case he found it but we each had our own computers and he never poked around on mine.