What is the point of journaling?

[AnnonyBox]

I can understand putting my feelings into my fiction writing to make a compelling depressed character, but I don't understand how writing about my day is supposed to help me uncover some hidden truth. All it ever did was make me feel worse because I dredged up all my negative experiences in a day. Have I been doing it wrong?

 

[stygal]

I usually just write down positive/interesting experiences hence the very empty journals.

I also don't get writing down your "daily business" - I'd get bored by it and it wouldn't help me retrospectively

 

[Sisyphus]

The idea is to provide distance from your thoughts. This allows you to objectify them and see they are silly or distorted, or to elaborate on them if they make sense. For instance, in cognitive therapy you may have a "thought diary." Writing down negative thoughts in this diary allows you to see the error in them. If those thoughts were just in your head, then you may just accept them without question.

 

[ClownMe]

Used to journal everyday a while back (i think it was 2019) and it didnt help my mental state at all, ended up giving it up because it became too tedious and depressing.

 

[timf]

It can also be useful if you are experimenting with your life such as if you take any medication or supplements to see when they might have an effect. The same can be useful with any experimentation such as exercises, diet, or spending more or less time with someone. If there is a causal relationship, it might give you a management tool you can use. They key is trying to connect cause and effect.

 

[motel rooms]

We cannot tear out a single page of our life, but we can throw the whole book in the fire.
-- G. Sand

 

[everydayiloveyou]

The idea is to provide distance from your thoughts. This allows you to objectify them and see they are silly or distorted, or to elaborate on them if they make sense. For instance, in cognitive therapy you may have a "thought diary." Writing down negative thoughts in this diary allows you to see the error in them. If those thoughts were just in your head, then you may just accept them without question.

This exactly. My journalling streak is like 2,000 days. It's really good for externalizing my anxious thoughts. It also helps me remember the last times I was happy, what I might've been doing, etc. Super useful when I'm extremely depressed and have the feeling that I've never ever been in a good mood. i just need to see my journal to remember that I'm happiest when I do a lot of different things and enjoy something with my family.

I think journalling is a good strategy for certain kinds of depression and anxiety. But it's important that you have insight and some practice with CBT or else it's gonna be useless and contribute more to the depression and stuff. You need awareness of your thoughts to effectively dispute them in the first place, and knowledge of CBT so that you can remind yourself what is a distorted thought when you're describing a bad day for example.

 

[Kattt]

It's actually an official form of therapy
By writing it down it helps you organise things in your mind AND get's it OUT OF YOUR HEAD
Personally I would suggest destroying it, or even burning it
Not only can that be quite symbolic but the wrong person reading it can be a kinda bad thing

 

[whiteflag]

There's different types of journaling prompts to give ideas what to journal about. Also kinds of journaling from inner child, shadow work, gratitude, etc. You don't have to write just about your day. I rarely journal and mostly do it in spurts, you don't have to force it if it isn't your thing.

 

[Sans]

So that people can see what I had to deal with when I inevitably pull the plug on my suffering.

 

[Seiko]

Thoughts enter your head and leave as fast as they came. Your consciousness only serves as random-access memory. There's no deliberation; what is remembered can and will be forgotten. Translating volatile thoughts and liquidating them into paragraphs is one of the most powerful things you can do.

My journal is the only part of my world that I have complete, total, and sovereign control of. I can change words, write new paragraphs, and simply type words as I wish with no judgment or policing. If you have the ability to, what's the point of not journaling? It's free, and looking at what your past self wrote is a different emotion.

Password-protect the file (I use Microsoft Word) and open it whenever you feel like it.

 

[Seiba]

For reference you don't have to write simply about your day. You can write about anything concerning yourself or life that you like to. The alienating part for me personally is I don't really experience thoughts in the same way others seem to. It's largely more emptiness on my part and that includes what occurs internally. There's some daydreaming which is largely words, but it's no use to journal. Only thing journaling I think could do is possibly narratively try to outline myself the best I could and improve from there.

 

[Alwaysbadtime]

If you live with people who you don't want them to read it...hide it well.

 

[Seiba]

If you live with people who you don't want them to read it...hide it well.

If you can hide a forum, you can hide a journal. Rednotebook is a downloadable example.

 

[Alwaysbadtime]

If you can hide a forum, you can hide a journal. Rednotebook is a downloadable example.

Sure....when I think about journaling I think about writing in an actual notebook/journal.

 

[Seiba]

Sure....when I think about journaling I think about writing in an actual notebook/journal.

Yes, but it's an alternative regardless. I think typing and the ability to edit might be something other folks like anyway -- since we're on an online forum.

 

[cooldude420]

i journal only get the bad thoughts out of my hed. once they live on paper, no pay rent in my head.

 

[Remember-Me-Not]

I realized after flipping through my old vent journals, that my past was crap and that just made me a bit sadder. So I started this thing where I journal every day about all the good things that happened.

It works me because it's a challenge to only to think of positive things, because I'm pessimistic in nature. Otherwise I would get bored, like someone else in this thread mentioned.

If someone were to pick up that journal, they would assume my life is dandy. Buy I also gave myself the ability to write the crappy stuff by writing my negative thoughts on a post-it note, date it, and stick it on the last page of that journal.

 

[Cronetappingout]

I have been wondering about writing too. Would it help me to get the repetitive thoughts out of my head finally? If I am upset it just goes on repeat like a skipping record and I hate stewing on things it just keeps my anxiety going at top speed.
I have even thought about writing a book about my life and all the crazy trauma that has happened, if those people would have wanted me to write kindly about them they should have acted better. I think journaling would help to get it out and to get it sorted to do the book.