My journey journal: A place to vent and examine my feelings.
Admitting that I was having issues beyond just "being a worrier" was liberating. Working on self-help coping methods, short term fixes, and reaching out to the community has been helpful. But there are just so many things running through my head.
I have tried writing them all out for myself and it helps. It just doesn't seem to have the impact on me I was hoping. It still feels as if I am still keeping everything bottled up. I'm not sure I'm ready to chat with a "listener" yet. I have had some bad experiences when I try to talk to people about my anxiety (even people with the same issues) and I am nervous that more such experience with make things worse.
Instead I have decided to use this platform as my journal. To document my thoughts and experience and try to work out stuff. If no one reads or comments on anything I post, that's fine. I'm putting it out there and I think that will be a huge help in my dealing with this issues.
If some supports me or has suggestions, that even better. If someone says "Me too!" or "It helped me to know I'm not alone." then awesome.
Thanks for listening. Deep Breath and Peace!
Sparky.
@Sparky4545
Journaling has helped me somewhat. Each day I try to write at least twice per day, sometimes three times (morning, noon and night). Just to make sure that whatever is going on gets captured fresh in my head. I've also color-coded each day so that I can just visually go back and see how many red (bad) days there were versus good or average. This helps me with the worrying part, because I can see that things weren't nearly as bad as I believed. (As an example, October had five red days. That's not too many in the scheme of a whole month. It's still five too many for me, but I'm working on it!)
I tried a listener once, but didn't really enjoy the experience. It was too one-sided. What I mean is, I was going into it expecting a conversation, and instead I got more one-word replies or things like "I understand how that would be frustrating." I understand they're "listeners" but I just would like a little more discussion. I'll try again in the future.
@thoughtfulmomma I really like the idea of the color coding! When I'm feeling good, it's hard for me to understand just how debilitated I can get on a bad day. I've always kept in my head what set off a "bad day" but to be able to see the progress or problems quickly would help too!
Great idea! Thanks!
I don't have a schedule, I write on my journal whenever I "feel" the need to do it. I resent plans and schedules and self imposed things, I go with the flow in life...yes I have anxieties (plural meaning many), anguishes and a lot of other heavy backpack to carry so I know your need to vent and express, I did it too and as opposed to a secret paper diary, here you get a hig or a hand from someone like you...keep writing and release your mind and soul of pressures...I am not a listener but I enjoy talking...
