Does Writing In a Journal Help Anxiety Text

Jonathan Friesen - Writing Coach

How can writing and journaling help with my anxiety? when trying anxiety self help techniques, journaling or writing down your thoughts and fears can be very beneficial. Anxiety disorders are normally not caused by one big problem, they are normally caused by the accumulation of many small, seemingly insignificant distresses that bring on anxiety attacks. You can think of it like you have too many electrical things plugged into one outlet, and it blows a fuse.

Essay Writing Farmer

Why not try to organize these distresses? cut out small pieces of paper or get out some index cards for this exercise. They no longer are things you fear and avoid, but now they are issues you can see with your eyes and actively work on a solution. Many people that have anxiety have found that simply writing things down, stories, thoughts, feelings, poetry, anything is a very helpful distraction from their worries. But seriously, it may help you a great deal, it's worth a try! it has helped me through some tough times with my anxiety. 4 step journal exercise to reduce anxiety anxiety continues to be a primary concern for children, adolescents and adults seeking therapy and counseling.

Love Essay to Him

In my own experience as a teen and adolescent therapist in the pasadena area, i rsquo ve found that a large percentage of my clients experience one or more forms of anxiety. Often, this anxiety is a pervasive theme and interferes with their ability to fully experience the joys of life. Anxiety can adversely affect performance at school or work and ndash much like depression ndash can isolate you from friends and make you feel very alone. Fortunately, psychotherapy can be very helpful in helping to reduce anxiety and diminish its effects on your life. Seeing a therapist, who can help identify triggers and coping skills, provides essential tools to decrease anxiety rsquo s impact. Specifically, i rsquo ve seen some of my clients have success with a simple, four step journaling exercise that helps them sort out the causes of their anxiety and map out a plan of action for stress free living. You can write in your journal at times when anxiety strikes or in between anxious moments, when you are feeling calm and want to keep stress away.

Each exercise should take approximately 15 45 minutes, depending on how detailed you get. If you are feeling anxious when you start this exercise, choose a number between 0 10 to rate your current level of anxiety. Ldquo 0 rdquo represents the absence of anxiety you rsquo re not feeling anxious at all , while ldquo 10 rdquo means that you are feeling the most anxious you rsquo ve ever felt. You can simply write the number itself or use a sentence to describe your rating.

For example: ldquo i feel that my anxiety is a 7 right now because i rsquo m anxious about speaking in public when i do my presentation in english class. Rdquo if you are writing in your journal in between those anxious times, you can adapt this step and rate your most recent level of anxiety. Ldquo i was feeling a 7 last week right before i gave my presentation in english class. Rdquo now, write down ndash in a few sentences ndash a time that you remember when your anxiety was less. For example, if your current level of anxiety is a ldquo 7, rdquo you don rsquo t have to recall a time when it was a ldquo 2 rdquo or a ldquo 1, rdquo especially if those times are hard to remember.

It could be a time later on, or even the present moment as you rsquo re writing in your journal. You might also recall a special calm or happy moment you had with friends a few days or weeks ago. The key is to remember a time when your anxiety was less and record it as specifically as possible. Simply write down what you were doing, who was with you, what was happening, etc. part a. now that you have remembered a time when you were feeling less anxiety, see if you can identify and write down any sensory clues from that less anxious time. To do this, write the following words on a horizontal line along your paper: see, hear, smell, touch, taste.