As a writer, I’ve always felt a little guilty about the fact that I don’t keep a journal. It’s not for lack of trying; I’ve filled countless notebooks with my daily thoughts but have never chronicled more than a week’s worth of events. I just haven’t found much therapeutic benefit to it—why write down, and subsequently focus even more on, issues that cloud my mind already? I lamented my lack of journaling to my friend Devita (not her real name) recently, and her response surprised me: she said that according to some therapists, journaling isn’t the best idea for everyone. As this went against everything I’d heard and read about diaries, I had to investigate further.
It turns out that for some people, keeping a diary can be a negative experience. One study in the UK even linked it to increased health problems. But after I consulted with licensed marriage and family therapist (MFT) Sandy Roos, it became clear that journaling itself isn’t the problem—it’s the specific kind of diaries we keep that determine their efficacy.
The Downside of Diaries
In 2004, researchers at Glasgow Caledonian University conducted a study to test the potential health effects of diary keeping by comparing ninety-four people who frequently wrote in journals with forty-one people who never did. The diarists were asked specifically about what sorts of things they wrote about and how often, and all of the volunteers filled out questionnaires about their physical well-being. Those who kept journals tended to have more headaches, stomach problems, and social-anxiety issues than their peers. The numbers increased the more often diarists wrote about traumatic episodes. The researchers couldn’t determine whether keeping diaries encouraged health problems or vice versa, but one thing’s for sure: writing too much about the bad stuff isn’t good for us.
Sandy Roos usually finds that her clients benefit from journaling and recommends it to them, but she also recognizes that not everybody’s ready for that kind of emotional release. “If I assess that they don’t have enough ego strength—they’re in crisis, suffering untreated depression, have undergone trauma, or have zero social support—I would wait until they’re stabilized and able to tolerate some of the feelings that might come up,” she explains. But as for physical ailments resulting from journaling, she feels that a long-term study to reexamine the findings might be necessary. “Sometimes short-term effects in studies change over time,” she says. “Most of the studies I’ve heard about have found that journaling is very positive.”
Many Methods for Many Needs
What many people don’t realize (including me, before I talked with Sandy and did some research) is that journaling doesn’t have to mean ranting endlessly about what went wrong with your day. In fact, some psychologists suggest taking a less emotional, more logical approach to problems via writing. Called structured journaling, this practice uses templates to explore all aspects of a person’s day, instead of just the depressing or frustrating parts. It also addresses the illogicality of most worries and fears (“I’ll never get a job” or “Everyone hates me”), and thus takes away their power.
Devita shared her experiences with structured journaling, explaining, “I kept what’s called a ‘mood journal,’ and I kept track of any negative thoughts I’d have. I’d write the thought, fear, or worry behind it, and then I would write the rational response that disproved the negative thought.” She found that the process gave her emotional health a positive boost. “Journaling’s supposed to be a way to work through whatever’s bothering you, but without structure, it can turn into dwelling,” she advises.
For clients who might not be emotionally ready to lay it all out on paper, Sandy recommends something similar to structured journaling. She asks them to write down the day’s events from an observational point of view so that they address thoughts and emotions without getting too wrapped up in them. When they have to deal with traumatic subjects, she has a method for tackling those as well. “If there’s a great deal of negative emotion they don’t want written down, I suggest they write it out and burn it,” she shares. “The act of burning the page is therapeutic and allows a letting-go of the incident.” Plus, if the subject’s especially painful, permanently destroying the written evidence ensures that you won’t come across it—and dredge up painful memories—again.
