JOURNALING BECOMING POPULAR FORM OF SELF-THERAPYby Eldonna Bouton

    In a world where Prozac is a household word, people are searching for alternative ways to combat depression and anxiety. Many are finding that journaling is a successful form of “therapy” and often as cathartic as talking to a professional.

As recently as April 26, 1999, Newsweek ran an article entitled “Pen. Paper. Power! Confessional Writing Can be Good for You,” touting the benefits of journaling. The article was sparked be a recent JAMA study in which sick participants wrote about emotional events in their lives. According to Newsweek’s report, “Researchers found that asthma patients who wrote about experiences such as car accidents, physical abuse, divorce or sexuality improved their lung function by 19 percent on average. And in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, symptoms decreased by 28 percent.”

Huge numbers of people worldwide are turning to journal writing as a way to resolve unhealed emotional wounds, tracking patterns in dysfunctional behavior, and just to have a creative outlet. Men and women alike are finding that by putting their thoughts on the page, they are better able to sort out their difficulties and often resolve inner and outer conflict.


We’re not talking about the boring “What I Did Today” diary. Journaling has evolved into a more sophisticated type of writing wherein one’s journal can be used to draw, write stories, jot down ideas, or work through day-to-day problems.

“Think of journaling as a pocket-therapist,” says Eldonna Bouton, author of Loose Ends, A Journaling Tool for Tying up the Incomplete Details of your Life and Heart. “If you take the time to write out your thoughts you will find that you are much calmer than when you started. And often, the answer to a problem is as close as your favorite pen.”

Like many, Bouton has kept journals for as long as she can remember. But it wasn’t until reading The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, that she became committed to journaling on a daily basis. Referred to as “the morning pages” in Cameron’s book, readers are encouraged to write their thoughts without editing to tap into the creative well within themselves.

“Once you get into the habit of keeping a journal, it becomes a precious part of your life,” adds Bouton. “You find that the same issues keep popping up and that sooner or later you’re going to have to deal with them once and for all. For me it had to do with guilt and pain over situations in my past. I finally figured out that until I could forgive, and that meant forgiving myself as well as others, I would continue to be stuck in the past.”

Hence the idea for her book. “I call it a journaling tool because a lot of people look at a blank page and don’t know where to start. Loose Ends has exercises to initiate writing about topics such as family, relationships, anger, and misunderstandings. There’s even a page for writing your own epitaph. Heck, why let someone else write it for you when you can tell people yourself what you want to be remembered for?” asks Bouton.

Although journaling cannot replace talk therapy or prescribed medications, some people feel that there would be a lot less anti-depressants handed out if more people tapped into the source of their pain through writing. And who knows, maybe you’ll find enough juicy stuff in there to write a best-selling book.


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