Stress Center Peer Support

It might seem silly but for me the hardest part of the program has always been writing in a daily journal. It might seem silly but It makes me so anxious to do so. I get so impatient during the process of writing down my thoughts by hand. Can anyone else relate?

If journaling makes you anxious, this might be a great time to just do it and push past an anxiety-driven limitation. If you don't like to write, why not just create a journal on your computer and type it.

LisaLisa

I can definitely relate to the dislike of journalling, Dustin B. I know that it's supposed to be helpful, but I get impatient with it as well. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with it, though I suppose the help is in the process rather than the product for the most part.

You're probably right. LisaLisa, that it's something to just push through. I can rationalize my way out of anything that creates anxiety for me, but there's a ton of evidence about the benefits of journalling. I think that it might force me to slow down my thoughts -- I have to hear my thoughts in order to write them down, which is probably the point of it all and why the anxiety and avoiding...

I did decide to start typing a journal instead of writing by hand, and all though it still makes me anxious it doesn't cramp up my hand like when writing by hand. Journaling makes me nervous because I feel like I have to write detail by detail at times. Also I feel like I will forget to write some things down that I want to. So many thoughts come in at once. I suppose I should just take it as it is. I've been doing better with it though, plus I can't keep letting anxiety kick my butt time and time again. Thanks for the responses. :u]

Peace & Love
-Dustin

Carolyn, I think that's her name, gave me some great advice about journaling. Instead of writing them, just do an audio journal.

Dustin B, I am also afraid that I will forget to write something in my journaling. Sometimes the thoughts come to me so fast. Something I do is start listing things in the journal as they come to me. Even if its in the middle of a sentence, stop the sentence, go down a line or two, write a couple words to remind my self, then skip down a couple lines again and finish the sentence I was working on before.

I try to remind myself that my journal is not going to become a published book. It doesn't need to look nice and neat.

When I was younger I kept a journal and wrote in it about things that were going on with my friends or with boys. Several years later I found my journal and began reading through it. It was funny and interesting to read through and see how I reacted to things. It made me realize how much I had grown, changed, and matured. I think that is one reason why we are encouraged to journal. We can always look back to see and feel how much we have grown and changed.

Journaling helps me untangle the racing - half thought out, thoughts that I have in my mind. Alot of the time, I'm trying to avoid the thoughts that I have, so writing them down is something that I wish to avoid. Writing it down is where I face fears, it's in words, it's real. I have had many revelations in journaling. Journaling is helping me to find the real me and to face my fears. pinkee

I think journaling is a good way to write about things that come to mind at times-but the confusion of where to start and what to do is there for me to. I definitely don't write as much as is recommended-i think it's hard to come face to face with fears at times--most of the time i just want to pretend like I don't have any fears. But i do. A lot of it also has to do with coming face to face with memories that i feel are not worth keeping-so i guess im in denial--that's not a suprise. Imagine what i could discover if i do this everyday. Thanks Dustin for writing about this best wishes for you and all on this journey.