Over the past year, I have been opening up more about my mental health. I write articles, share posts and discuss with family and friends about what living with mental illness is like. Living with depression and anxiety is not easy, but lately, it has gotten a lot easier to deal with these conditions. The reason is very simple actually: journaling. Thanks to my therapist, I have found a new way to relieve stress.
See, I’ve always enjoyed writing. From creative writing assignments to getting my articles published by Her Campus, writing has been a fun and expressive way to share my thoughts and feelings with the world. But I’ve never consistently taken time to write for myself. My therapist suggested to me that I can try journaling when I feel anxious or stressed, so I followed her advice and decided to take it seriously. Now it’s the best coping mechanism I have.
Having anxiety and depression is like living with a constant negative voice in your head that never stops. Some days are better than others, but when I get really stressed, it is a lot all at once. Because of the negative voice I hear, I tend to talk inside my head a lot. I’m constantly thinking, analyzing and planning. While I do discuss how I feel more openly with others, it’s still really hard to explain how I feel. But because of journaling, I have found a new way to vocalize what is going on inside my head. I can now understand the root of my stress and recognize my thoughts.
The object of journaling is not to fix your emotions. It is only to write how you are feeling and why. Sometimes you can start writing and notice that something you didn’t know about is a cause of stress. When you journal, you don’t judge yourself either. Telling yourself that what you are feeling is bad is not going to solve your problems. Journaling is to relieve any stress that you may hold in your mind and to release it, recognize it and let it go. This perspective has helped me a lot with my mental health. For the longest time, I have held in my feelings because I have always viewed them as negative. Through writing about my emotions, I have come to recognize that they’re not bad at all. They are normal parts of the human experience. I try to no longer deem my thoughts as something to hide or something shameful.
I am so thankful for my therapist and the suggestion she had for me to journal. I now journal about once or twice a week to discuss what I have been through recently and how it made me feel. It combines my love for writing and my love for self-care into one. It helps acknowledge my emotions about what is going on, it helps me put my thoughts into words and it lets me leave all my baggage in my notebook. You don’t have to carry your stress around with you all day. It’s not for everyone, but if you’re anything like me, you could always give it a try. For me, journaling is therapeutic.