How Many of You Keep a Journal/Diary??

I journal all the time. It's the only place where I can really 'talk' and be honest about how I feel. It's helped me track the progession of my depressed feelings etc. I'm a journal addict.

yeah i have tried the whole journal thing before and it didnt work so well i mean it was helpful but i would lose track or just forget to write

Just starting my "success journal". It's good to write them in And I find out that this makes me treasure and collect small successes everyday.

I've kept one for about a year now. I write in it every day unless I really feel like ---- and just want to sleep, which ironically is when I really should write in it lol

I keep a journal that I try to write in every day. Sometimes I forget about it for a month or more then pick it up again. It's pretty random what's in there. Sometimes it's what I did that day, or different events in my life I don't like or do like. Currently I have affirmations and some CBT work I started on.

I used to...

I have various notebooks, but I don't know if it really considers as journaling, I write various lines of poetry taht come to me, occasionlly I write an actual "journal" entry, but most of my notebooks end up as places to but ideas and fun little sketchs...

I kept a journal during the ten some years I spent in therapy to deal with my old wounds and DID - but I have since gotten rid of all of them (burned them) and I no longer keep a journal of any kind.

I have kept a journal, and when i was hospitalized i wrote in it every day, sometimes twice a day. I have talked with my T about this, and I am scared about starting to write again. I am scared what may come out. Things are so angry in my mind and I don't like feeling that way.

I used to keep a journal. It didn't do anything to help. If anything, my emotional stability worsened. I've kept journals for many years, and the same thing happens after awhile: I become depressed and suicidal. This is why I have always stopped journalling in the past, and will not take it up again, ever.

I've tried and failed many times, but I think I'm getting the hang of this whole journal concept now..

I love writing, so I generally try to keep one. At first it was a "today I did blahblahblah and so-and-so said blahblahblah" sort of thing, but now it's become more of a way to keep track of my emotions in relation to other things (for example, how much I sleep, etc). I definitely don't have it as a daily habit though.

I've started keeping one and write in it pretty much every day.
It helps keep me organized, focussed and the day just goes better if I pour out what's on my mind first thing in the morning.

Hi Patty,

I do keep a journal, but not as regularly as I'd like sometimes. It depends how I feel. Writing can sometimes make the feelings seem stronger and sometimes worse.

A trauma therapist a couple of years ago started me writing again but on certain subjects, like compassion and how I am taking care of myself.

I've tried keeping a journal, but I tend to judge what I write and give up pretty quickly. I'd like to try again one of these days.

No Journal here. I just find myself not needing to reprocess what im already lliving. Just my way of coping would prefer not to relive it by writing it down. Plus I wuldl never go back and read i.

I keep an online blog, that way I can choose who I want to share it with. I write in it every couple of days.

I've kept some form of a journal ever since I can remember. I find it really difficult to motivate myself to write sometimes though, especially if I've had a hard day (which is very frustrating because those are the times I need to write in it the most.)

I don't know how I would function if I couldn't get my thoughts out and down on paper every now and then, I think I'd explode.

I journal almost daily. However, it is alot like my thoughts, fragmented adn jumbled, esp on a bad day. But writing helps me. It is therapuetic. I like writing poetry too, someotimes everythign that comes out of my pet in poetry...then some days I cannot write a poem for anything, lol. Some days I can only draw. I have an art journal too...I draw, freely, kind of like the aoutomatic writing, but drawing, then I put notes on the drawing about the intense emotion it generated.

I write in mine fairly regularly. I think it helps me to express things bothering me or things which interest me - I can then make more conscious decisions about how to deal with things. Often they are pretty trivial things but at the time, I would have been getting myself into a bit of a state, so it is good to write it down and see if I can resolve it once it is clearer.

I use a notebook, though I type almost everything else I write. There is something about pen and paper that seems easier to let everything out. Maybe because I have years more experience writing by hand than typing? I think I edit too much when typing. Also I can write on the bus or in the park where using a laptop (I no longer have one!) would be too awkward.

I rarely reread mine but sometimes I do, out of curiousity mostly. I find it hard to remember how I was feeling when I was writing those old entries. Very odd to read about an emotional time 2 or 10 or 20 years ago and have no sense of what it felt like, or even if that was really me? And the writing is usually difficult to decipher.

So it is very much a here and now thing for me.

I used to every day but haven't in about a month, I'm trying to figure out if it helps me or just makes things worse....

I'm considering starting one.
I don't like talking about the problems in my life, so I figure it would help me let them out. Even though I know no one is likely to read it back (not even me).
I just need to find the motivation to start it...

I journal and it's such a life saver and there is an added benefit as you
fill up composition books then years and years later....you can go back and see how far you have come. I am glad I wrote and saved them because I have gone back now and so glad I moved them 7 times...whew.

*an idea* there are journals out there that asks you the questions and is very helpful. I couldn't journal when I started so I used them.
Oh and a really really good one that I love and have used it over and over is called "The Castle of the Peril" and you are led up to the castle and you have feasts and you invite whoever you want living or dead and you go into a deep discussion or as deep as you want to take it and you write about why they have been invited to your feast. Then the guide takes you to this place and that place and asks you to questions and it's just the neatest thing and then you realize that you've written pages upon pages.

Plus keeping a journal also helps your medical doctors and Psych Docs because they can see where you wrote when a certain pain started and things you have done so the pdoc knows your getting out and trying to live and be apart of the world from your perspective, from my experience
when it comes to medical doctors and specialists they like to see that a patient has logged when things started and what you are going through emotionally and mentally as well since they often want to know you from top to feet.

Good Luck and if you want the other journals pm me and I'll send the authors and titles to these journals.

Have a Happy Day Folks
Crew

I keep a LiveJournal I write in multiple times a day and I used to write in a paper journal every day, but now I only really write in it when upset.

I keep a journal and write in it everyday. I keep the journal a secret and only show it to people i trust. (My therapist). She is very impressed with the way i write and even want me to publish it. She said i should be a writer.