Avatar Posted by twentytroubles 35 days ago (Question)
I've read a few articles on here that list the stress relieving and emotional benefits to journal writing/keeping.

Can someone elaborate on the details or research? What benefits are there, other than the usual stress reduction? Wouldn't journal writing make people mop about their life even more, making them less happy than they were to begin with?


Answers

Written by smack 35 days ago Rating: 0 | Rate Answer: + -

Depends how you journal. Those articles you've read probably give tips for effective journaling. Why not try it yourself and see? That's probably the best research evidence you can ask for.

I find it helps in much the same way talking to another person helps. I can crystallize and analyze my thoughts, and there's this sense of externalizing and releasing the emotions that I just don't get when they swirl in my mind. I have found myself plagued by a thought over and over for days, but once I wrote it down, I did not think about it again.

Written by Clyde 32 days ago Rating: 0 | Rate Answer: + -

Actually, journaling is very therapeutic in a way that it can help show people what they do when they have issues going on in their lives.

For instance, if someone is worried about overeating, they can write about how they are doing and what is up when they begin to feel the need to overeat, and with the whole list/journal, they can see patterns of their behavior and work forward with it.

They can also show these to their therapist, and the therapist can help them understand the triggering behaviors and how to better eliminate/treat them.

Best,

Clyde


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