What's the point of a journal? The problem is still there, and it's a reminder of the problem. So why journal?

Writing your issues in a diary not only works as an outlet for complicated feelings and thoughts, but can also help you see the situation better. Often problems take a very unclear, vague form in our minds. Writing them on paper can help you shape and define them. As you write, more and more details appear, too. Now that they are clear, you can elaborate them, and even evaluate them from a distance, something you can't do when the issue is only in your head. This helps you being more objective. Of course, this only works if you are at least a little willing to write a journal. If writing a journal is the least thing you want to do - if you are completely against that... it might very well be useless.

As someone who kept a journal throughout high school and college, I feel thankful to have had this habit. Writing in a journal is a good way to let socially unacceptable thoughts, feelings, and desires come out with very minimal risk of these thoughts being expressed to those in your life. It is essentially a tool of catharsis to act out negative feelings without actually physically acting on them in real life. In this way, it is similar to graphic video games, only with a pen and paper, you are not limited to a world of others' creation. You can create alternate realities, explore problems in your life, and fantasize about an unlimited expanse of possibilities. If you keep the pages you write, you can go back and reflect on your state of mind at previous points in time. For those who are willing to take the time to do it, I think journaling can be very rewarding. I think this is true even if you throw out the paper as soon as you write. Even just the act of putting words to how you feel or the things that cross your mind can help you to make sense of the vast, incalculably complex thing that is the human psyche.