October 9, 2024 • 31 mins
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Journaling can be a useful tool in anxiety recovery, but how do you ensure it works for you and not against you? This episode challenges traditional journaling methods, especially when grappling with chronic or disordered anxiety, by offering a fresh perspective on how to modify these practices to align with your recovery goals. Beware of falling into the trap of rumination and learn how to use journaling as a constructive tool that supports your healing journey.
The discussion centers on four foundational elements that can elevate your journaling practice: event description, response detailing, outcome assessment, and pattern identification. Maintaining objectivity is key, as subjective interpretations can lead to catastrophic thinking. By recognizing and recording trigger-response patterns, you create a structured framework that helps challenge anxious thoughts and highlights progress. This episode offers a roadmap for adapting journaling techniques to effectively address anxiety and track your recovery progress over time.
As recovery progresses, so does the way you journal. Traditional journaling might regain its appeal as you become less reactive to emotions. This episode highlights the evolution of journaling styles to suit different stages of recovery, addressing potential criticisms and clarifying the unique needs of those dealing with chronic anxiety. Find a journaling approach that resonates with your current stage, and embrace the changes that come with recovery.
For full show notes on this episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/302
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Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This week on the Anxious Truth, we're talking
about journaling.
Specifically, we're talkingabout journaling in the context
of anxiety disorders andrecovery from anxiety disorders.
So let's get to that right now.
Journaling is one of the mostpopular sort of default
(00:23):
activities, often connected tomental health and general
wellness, and for good reason,because journaling isn't bad or
evil.
But, as usual, things get a bitupside down when we're talking
about anxiety disorders.
So today we need to talk abouthow journaling fits into the
context of chronic or disorderedanxiety.
Hello everybody, welcome back tothe Anxious Truth.
(00:44):
This is the podcast and theYouTube channel where we talk
about all things anxiety,anxiety disorders and anxiety
disorder recovery.
I'm Drew Linsalata.
I'm creator and host of thispodcast.
I'm a therapist practicingunder supervision, specializing
in the treatment of anxiety andanxiety disorders in the state
of New York.
I'm also a former sufferer ofpanic disorder, agoraphobia, ocd
, depression for many years ofmy life, on and off, but better
(01:06):
now, thankfully.
I'm a social media guy, anadvocator, an educator and a
three-time author on the topicof anxiety and anxiety disorders
.
Yeah, today we are going todiscuss journaling in the
context of anxiety and anxietyrecovery.
But before we get to that, justa quick reminder that the
Anxious Truth is more than justthis YouTube video or this
podcast episode.
There's a ton more resources,including those books that I was
(01:28):
talking about.
There are psychoeducational andinformative workshops, all at a
very low cost.
There's all of the free socialmedia content.
There's 301 previous freepodcast episodes.
Take advantage of all that.
All of that can be found on mywebsite at theanxioustruthcom.
That can be found on my websiteat theanxioustruthcom.
If you really dig my work andwant to find ways to support
that, you'll also find ways todo that on my website.
(01:49):
So again, when you get a chance, check it out, avail yourself
of all the resources that's attheanxioustruthcom.
If you are here today for thefirst time, welcome.
I hope you find what we douseful and, of course, if you're
a returning viewer or listener,welcome back.
I do hope you get something outof today's episode.
So let's talk about journaling.
Journaling is something that iswidely regarded as sort of a
(02:09):
default go-to good idea,especially in mental health and
wellness circles, and I want totalk about that because, while I
am a fan of journaling, I am aconsistent journaler.
Especially over the past two orthree years, the way I journal
now looks very different thanthe way I would have done it
when I was in the thick ofdisordered and chronic anxiety.
(02:30):
So we need to clarify thisJournaling isn't something that
we necessarily have to abandonif we're in the middle of an
anxiety disorder, but I dobelieve that we probably have to
take a hard look at why we'redoing it, how we're doing it and
if we can maybe modify that, atleast for a while, to be a
little bit more in alignmentwith recovery goals that we set
when we are dealing with chronicand disordered anxiety.
So we're going to go over acouple of key points in this
(02:52):
episode, and I want to startwith why we journal and I mean
we like the royal, we not justanxious people, but people in
general.
What are the reasons why peoplelike to journal and think that
journaling is a good idea?
Well, one reason might be tosort of keep a record of our
days, just sort of a historicalrunning narrative of what we did
, and sometimes it's fun or evenuseful in some ways, to look
(03:15):
back and remember what we did ona given day or during a given
period in our lives, and that'spretty cool, there's nothing
wrong with that.
But in the case of ourparticular context.
We would have to get a littlebit more specific here.
For the purposes of chronic anddisordered anxiety recovery,
another reason why people chooseto journal would be to give
ourselves sort of a private orsafe place to express emotions,
(03:37):
especially things that we don'treally necessarily want to share
with another person.
That's really excellent, likeI'm a big fan of that in almost
any context.
For sure, we have to be able toexpress ourselves.
While in the state of chronicor disordered anxiety, sometimes
things get a little skewed andall we keep doing is expressing
the same emotion, which is fear,again and again and again.
We always want to have a placeto productively and in a healthy
(04:00):
way express emotions that aregoing to happen to every human
being.
It's normal and it's kind ofrequired.
So when it comes to likejournaling as a way to express
emotions, I'm a fan.
It's really cool.
Another way that people mighttraditionally use journaling
would be to sort of work throughthose emotions or different
ideas or problems or conflicts.
So you know, et cetera, etcetera.
People will journal to sort oftry to find answers inside
(04:25):
themselves, which cool.
But in this context, anxietyand anxiety disorders I've got
to give you a big nope on that,and there's a reason for that.
So stick with me and I willexplain journaling as a way to
find answers to our thoughts andour feelings and our
experiences and our emotionswhile we are struggling with an
(04:46):
anxiety disorder.
By being extra intentional,introspective tends to be more
problematic than helpful, so wewere going to get to that.
Let's talk about, then, thepitfalls of traditional
journaling.
For the community of people wholisten to this podcast and
follow my work on social media,to this podcast and follow my
work on social media, it'sreally the part where we work
(05:07):
through feelings, emotions,thoughts, ideas, conflicts and
challenges through introspectionand examining ourselves, like
in the case of anxiety andanxiety disorders.
That's where things tend tosort of go off the rails for
people in our community.
It fuels repetitive, compulsive, ruminative habits that really
(05:27):
cause the problem to begin with.
Anxiety disorders largely kindof revolve around falling into
the trap of trying to use a verybasic human ability, which is
figuring things out mentally andcognitively.
This is a trait that helps us,but in anxiety disorders we tend
to try to jam that trait andthat ability into situations
(05:48):
where it just doesn't belong.
It cannot be helpful and itactually turns out being harmful
.
Anxious people in general try tosolve their feelings, thoughts
and bodily sensations, which isnot really a thing for
non-anxious people, and itstarts to get us in trouble.
So the record-keeping aspect ofjournaling in a traditional
(06:09):
sense is also a bit of a trapfor an anxious mind or somebody
in the grips of chronic ordisordered anxiety.
I mean, looking back at ourdays and our emotions and our
experiences can be super usefulor, like I said before, fun in
the right context.
But for an anxious mind that'sin the middle of an anxiety
disorder, record keeping revealskind of a never ending,
(06:30):
constantly looping horror storywhich isn't in any way
productive.
This is something that you'reprobably doing every day, even
if you're not journaling, justrepeating how scary it is and
what it feels like and how hardit is.
This, if you do it formally injournaling, can then really
encourage or lead to diggingfuriously for kind of clues and
(06:50):
hints as to how to fix thosefeelings, those thoughts, those
emotions and sensations.
And that's when things reallyget lit on fire and we wind up
perpetuating the problem.
And of course, if you're new tothis, you might say, whoa, like
my mind is exploding right now.
What is this guy saying?
This is why I said in thebeginning that in the case of
anxiety disorders things tend toget turned kind of upside down
(07:13):
or backwards.
This is very counterintuitiveand common sense often doesn't
apply in our context.
We care about that, we have to.
So let's look at journaling orrecording our thoughts as part
of sort of cognitive behavioraltherapy.
But what I really care about issort of old school CBT the
stuff that was being done in the60s, 70s, 80s, even into the
(07:34):
early 90s, and sadly in somecircles it's still relied on
today, even though we know it'sprobably not a good idea.
So journaling in the case ofsort of traditional or old
school CBT might involve thingslike keeping thought records.
Anybody who's been through aformal course of CBT kind of
using those old schooltraditional techniques, may have
been taught to keep thoughtrecords.
(07:54):
You're recording your thoughts,what triggered it, what were
you doing when you had thesethoughts In that situation?
You're doing it to look fortriggers, often so they can be
avoided or managed, and that isthe opposite of acceptance and
psychological flexibility, whichare really the cornerstones of
more current third wavetreatments for anxiety disorders
, and we care about that.
(08:15):
Then journaling in traditionalCBT often gets used to try to
bring logic and reason to bearon highlighting why anxious
thoughts are irrational whichthey very well be.
But in this situation that'shighlighted in thought records
and CBT journaling for thepurpose of trying to directly
change them through thinking andcognition.
And this doesn't work terriblywell in the context of an actual
(08:36):
anxiety disorder like panicdisorder or health anxiety or
OCD.
It just doesn't work terriblywell.
In the context of an actualanxiety disorder like panic
disorder or health anxiety orOCD, it just doesn't work.
And so in the beginning wewould try to say like, well,
let's journal and use these sortof thought records and use sort
of CBT methods to show you thatyour thoughts are irrational
and not likely to be thecatastrophe that you think.
And then, once you see thatthey're irrational, we can start
(08:59):
to change them simply becauseyou see the irrationality.
And we know that that led tohigher relapse rates, attrition.
There was legit complaintsabout CBT trying to just change
thoughts through logic andreason and Socratic questioning
where, yeah, it was the mosteffective treatment we had but
it often turned out to be notterribly effective on the
(09:21):
longterm because of that.
So that's how journaling wouldbe used in like sort of
traditional or old school CBTand it doesn't really work out
that well.
We had to put that acceptanceand flexibility part into the
into the puzzle and we're goingto get to that.
So am I saying that, likeanxious people, people listening
to this podcast or watchingthis video, if you're dealing
with an anxiety disorder orchronic states of anxiety that
you can't seem to get out fromunderneath, am I saying that we
(09:42):
should never, ever journal?
Well, I'm not really sayingthat at all.
I mean, if journaling is athing that you enjoy doing,
there's literally nothing wrongwith that.
We never want to take awaythings that are a source of
strength or coping.
But if your journal istraditional in its nature and
you're journaling right now andyour journal, if you look at the
(10:02):
last few weeks or few months,sort of looks like a never
ending, continuously loopingepisode of Stranger Things and
you've been like tryingspecifically to fix your anxiety
through the act of journalingand it's not working out for you
so well and you're gettingreally frustrated by that and
you started to think that you'renever going to get better, then
it might be time to at leastrevisit the habit.
(10:22):
Now, a recovered person,somebody who's gotten past that
chronic or disordered state,might return to more traditional
forms of journaling, like as apersonal history and
introspection tool, which iscool.
But a chronically anxiousperson might need to consider
modifying their journaling stylefor a while.
So if you are adyed-in-the-wool journaler and
you love that, I'm not trying totake that away from you, but
(10:45):
what I'm going to suggest todayis that we may have to sort of
shift gears and use journalingin a little bit of a different
way for now, until you can getout of the, you know, out of the
weeds and out of the deep water, get your head above water,
stand up, put out the fire.
Then maybe you can go back tosort of that old school way of
journaling when it fits yourcontext again.
So if you are dealing with ananxiety disorder like panic
(11:08):
disorder or OCD OCD isn'ttechnically in the anxiety
disorder category anymore, butit's closely enough related
agoraphobia, health anxiety,that sort of stuff, social
anxiety how can we usejournaling Like?
What are the top tips foranxiety disorder journaling?
Well, the first one that I willgive you would be use your
journal as, like a standingreminder.
(11:28):
What I mean by that is it'stotally cool to start every
journal entry with a framingstatement or a reminder Like
these could be prompts, butthey're not really prompts,
they're just reminders that youmight have sort of automatically
built into the top of everyjournal entry.
Some examples of those might beI don't have to figure out or
(11:48):
fix my feelings all the time.
I might put a reminder in thebeginning of every journal entry
that says all thoughts areallowed.
I don't have to control mythoughts right.
I might use one that saysfrightened bodies do frightened
body things and that's normal,even when it's scary.
So they wouldn't really beprompts, they'd be more like
(12:09):
reminders at the top of everyjournal entry and you could
start to see how statements likethat framing statements,
reminders can help you rememberwhat your recovery framework
kind of looks like before youfall into the trap of digging
into thoughts and feelings andsensation with the purpose of
sort of trying to solve them.
So one tip for anxiety disorderjournaling would be start your
(12:32):
journal entries with thoseframing statements or those
reminders.
It's like prompts, but youdon't really answer them,
they're just reminders.
So the next tip I would say iswhen you're sort of starting
either starting to journal inthe context of an anxiety
disorder or modifying yourjournal habit to sort of fit
your anxiety disorder recovery.
One thing that I would say isyou want to try and focus your
(12:55):
journaling on four key things.
The first one is what happened,that is, what did you feel or
think or experience?
What emotions did youexperience as a result of that
and here's a hint or a spoileralert that will usually be fear,
uncertainty or feelingvulnerable?
So just what did I experience?
(13:16):
What actually happened and whatdid I feel when this happened?
Sometimes the feeling isexactly what happened, or
sometimes the thought is thehappening.
That's okay, just describe it.
The second thing you want tofocus on is what did you do in
response to what happened Eitherthe sensation or the trigger in
the world that set you off andmade you anxious, or the thought
(13:38):
that you had, or whatever it is.
What did you do in response tothat?
In this situation, I would say,be specific.
Did you do something specificbehaviorally in response to that
experience?
Or did you do somethingspecific mentally, like engage
in active thinking or problemsolving or maybe fact checking
or verifying to try and makeyourself feel better?
(13:58):
Just record that.
What did I do behaviorally andmentally in response to this
thing that happened.
That made me feel a certain way.
The third thing you'd want tofocus on in your journal entry
would be how did things turn outLike?
What was the outcome?
Did your behavioral or mentalresponse that you noted
previously change anything?
(14:19):
Did it make you feel better,even just in the moment?
And then the fourth thing andthis is probably the most
important one to me is is this apattern?
If you look back over the lastfew weeks or maybe even months
in your journal, can you refine?
Can you find repeated entriesand instances that look either
(14:39):
identical or an awful lot likethe one you're making right now?
Is this recurring?
And if it is, compare that tothe outcome you recorded.
If ruminating or activelyworrying or going into escape or
avoidance or saving mode madeyou feel better in that moment,
then why does this keephappening?
Notice that you keep writingthe same journal entry again and
(15:02):
again.
Now it might be better thanjust recounting.
You know recounting a nightmareover and over.
But if you're being veryfactual and sort of objective in
this and we're going to get tothat in a second why do you keep
making the same general kind ofentry?
So look for patterns right.
You can use your sort of anxietydisorder or anxiety recovery
journaling style to help youfind repeating patterns, because
(15:23):
they matter.
They are clues, they are flags,they are, you know, maps for us
to follow.
And here's a pro tip whenyou're working on this, do not
attempt to interpret what youput in your journal entry.
Just stick to the facts.
It's just the facts.
So, for instance, say justexactly what happened in your
body, not what it felt like orwhat you thought it meant.
(15:45):
Say what emotions youexperienced I was angry, I was
afraid, I was frustrated, I wassad, I was very afraid will
suffice.
You don't need to add the partwhere it felt like you might
pass out or die or make a sceneor go insane or whatever it is
you fear.
We really want to be objectivehere to as great a degree as we
(16:06):
can.
So when we're journaling, Ijust want you to maybe focus on
those four things and be asobjective as possible, without
adding a story to it or yourinterpretations of what it felt
like or what you were afraidmight happen as a result.
So the next tip I can give yousort of for anxiety disorder
journaling would be in the nextphase, once you sort of get this
(16:27):
down and you start to recordyour experiences this way,
subjectively, without addingstories and without turning them
into repeated like nightmarishdigging for clues, then what can
you change?
Like this should lead us tolike well, what can I start to
change?
So, if your journaling, youranxiety disorder journaling, is
revealing sort of a repeatingpattern of trigger escape, avoid
(16:51):
, repeat then now it might betime to set up a bit of a new
journal framework, once you seethat, to help to change that.
And that would be based onreally three statements, which
is I felt I did, and then Iwound up dot, dot, dot, and it's
going to sound familiar to thethings I just told you.
Right, but this is where I wantthings to get a little bit more
(17:14):
descriptive, if you will.
Right, we want to record actualmental and behavioral action,
to build on a record you canrely on, and this is a part
where we can start to bring alittle bit more of those
catastrophic interpretationsback into the picture.
But for a reason.
So let me give you an example.
Today I had thoughts aboutinsanity.
Again I was really afraid.
(17:35):
Again it got so bad.
It felt like I was going tosnap and totally lose myself
forever, which is my biggestfear.
I was very worried that thisexperience would be too much,
that I'm too weak and it wouldbreak me permanently.
I did.
That's the second one.
I did my best to allow allthose thoughts without fighting
them.
I tried my best to relax mybody and let it do whatever it
(17:56):
thought it needed to do, butthat was really hard.
I slipped up a few times, Iwent back into fighting and
resisting mode and I really hadto keep reminding myself of what
to do.
It was really hard and this isa hard thing to do, and then I
wound up.
There's that third one.
Okay, still afraid and worried.
I'm still afraid and anxiousnow, but if I really look at
(18:16):
this, I could see that I didn'ttake my usual sort of evasive or
safety action and I was able tomove through those fears when
they flared up throughout theday.
So see, the difference Likewhat I described is a very
different journal entry than youmight think of journaling on a
traditional sense, from like awellness or mental health
standpoint, because now whatwe've made is like a useful
(18:39):
record or that you're nevergoing to get better.
These are common thoughts amonganxious people.
You can stop for a second andlook back on these journal
entries to inject some objectivereality into that process Could
be really useful, right.
So often, like in my work thatI do in my social media
(19:03):
community, I will get people whowill ask me.
Or if you follow people who arelike me, like Josh Fletcher, my
podcast on Disordered, or KimQuinlan or Lauren Rosen or
whoever you know the usualsuspects, joanna Hardis people
might reach out to people likeus to provide that.
Oh, I'm in a setback, right,I'm just worried that I'm never
going to get better.
You know what do I do with that, drew?
Well, here, if you journal thisway and kind of use this sort of
(19:25):
rough framework that I'm givingyou, you don't even really have
to ask me, or Josh or Lauren orJoanna or Kim.
You can look back at your ownjournal and see what's going on.
Right, it's way better thanasking a third party that you
don't even know, and it's way,way better than reading back
through 104 entries you know,dating back six months that all
sound like the end of the worldand ultimately give you zero
(19:48):
credit for what is an importantpart of recovery, and that is
sort of your innate, innateability to be human and
experience human things likefear or uncertainty or anxiety
or even panic attacks, right.
So think about that.
What I'm trying to give youhere is a way to kind of change
your journaling framework sothat it can be truly useful to
you and not just a fruitless,futile, like frantic attempt to
(20:10):
try to fix your feelings andyour sensations by writing and
thinking and digging right,because that doesn't really work
out so well.
So now let's talk aboutjournaling sort of going forward
and as you progress and thatwould be start to look a little
different too, or it might.
Now this is where it getsreally individual, right.
But as you start to progress inyour recovery, maybe you're
finding that you're lessreactive to your sensations or
(20:32):
thoughts or emotions than youused to be.
Maybe you don't feel that theyare as continuously threatening
or urgent as they used to be.
That's good.
These are signs of progress,right, you're kind of getting
your life back.
You might find in thatsituation that you're starting
to experience emotions andthoughts again like a
non-anxious person might, likethey can stand alone and then
they might actually have valueand you might be able to take
(20:55):
actual useful action in responseto those internal experience.
So, for example, as you'refurther down the road in
recovery or you're a fullyrecovered person, when being
really angry at your sister forinstance because he had an
argument is just being reallyangry about your sister and it's
no longer connected tocatastrophic things like fearing
a panic attack or worrying thatyou might go insane you might
(21:18):
be able to use your journalagain in more of sort of a
traditional way to explore thatfeeling or express it in a safe
way.
Maybe check out the situationthat caused it, think about that
a little bit and maybe decidewhat you're going to do next to
address it.
You know, do I have to likechange the way I relate to my
sister if I'm angry at her?
Or do I want to ask her to notbe so rude to me next time?
(21:39):
Or do I want to do nothing andjust say, well, we had a fight,
because sometimes siblings fightLike?
Your journal might become usefulagain in that respect.
That's the way non-anxiouspeople often use journaling, and
if you've always been ajournaler in that traditional
style, then like congratulations, you're getting something that
you love and have found usefulin the past.
You're getting it back againLike pat yourself on the back
(22:00):
for making some progress andbeing able to return to things
that actually matter to you ormake you happy or make you feel
better or help you just betterbe better at life.
And if you've never been ajournal kind of person before,
you tried sort of this anxietyrecovery journaling that I'm
describing today and you findthat you have less need to make
sort of the anxiety disorderentries that I'm describing in
(22:23):
this podcast episode or thisvideo, you might decide to
explore traditional journalingto see how that fits into sort
of your emerging recovery.
I mean, you might like it oryou might find it totally
useless.
And one day, when you aren'talways afraid of your own body
and mind anymore, you might makeyour very last anxiety disorder
journal entry and never lookback.
That can happen and that's finetoo.
(22:45):
So this wouldn't necessarily bea framework that I'm giving you
today for forever journaling.
It's within a specific contextand then when you get out of
this particular context and yourlife changes and your situation
changes, you may choose toreturn to traditional journaling
or try traditional journalingor burn your journals and never
do it again.
That's totally up to you.
It's totally fine.
There's no right answer there.
(23:07):
So as we start to get liketoward the end of the episode
here, I want to talk about somecriticisms of this, because I
know when you look at this stuffthrough the lens of general
wellness or emotional support ormental health, personal growth,
telling somebody to not fullydescribe and honor air quotes,
their thoughts and emotions,might seem ridiculous or you
(23:28):
might even feel like this isharmful, like what is this guy
talking about?
So if you stumble upon thisvideo or this podcast episode
and you come from moretraditional mental health or
wellness circles, you mightthink what is this guy talking
about?
How could he tell people to notactually get in touch with
their feelings?
And I really understand wherethat comes from.
But I just have to simplyremind you that in this podcast,
(23:49):
on this YouTube channel, I amaddressing a very specific issue
in context chronic anddisordered states of anxiety.
This is its own animal, if youwill, and the rules tend to get
all thrown up in the air and getvery counterintuitive in this
context, because you are certainthat the key to recovery from
(24:10):
panic disorder or, say, ocd,just for example, must lie in
uncovering hidden pain or otherhighly emotionally introspective
activities like traditionaljournaling, where you're doing
emotion dumps and figuring outwhere it came from and what is
this telling you.
Well then, you are certainlyfree to disagree with me and
(24:30):
move on if you want to, but justknow that in very large
populations of people thatsuffer from the kind of mental
health issue that we're talkingabout here, that kind of thing
is most times harmful ratherthan helpful and really, at a
minimum, it winds up being, formost of these people, fruitless
and frustrating.
So we have to take the specificcontext into account.
(24:52):
Nobody here me, there's, no oneelse here, it is just me.
Nobody here is suggesting thatwe ignore emotions or feelings
forever like robots or just letthe world like kick our butts in
an entirely passive way forever.
That's not what I'm saying, butwe do have to recognize that
when active resistance and likeactive mental and emotional
(25:14):
problem solving goes off therails and fuels the struggles
we're addressing when I blatherinto this microphone every two
weeks, then we may have toactually change things up a
little bit and start to thinkabout how we might consider a
different approach Might.
So just wanted to address that,because I know that criticism
will come up and it can be avalid criticism if taken out of
(25:36):
context.
So let's wrap it up.
We're 25 minutes into it.
It's a little longer than Iwanted to go, but you guys know
me by now If you listen longenough.
Sometimes it kind of sounds likean episode like this is an
anti-journaling episode.
I'm not anti-journaling episode.
I'm not anti-journaling.
I myself have been journalingvery consistently for the last
two or three years now and Ihave actually come to love it.
(25:56):
Like I write I can't believe it.
I write in a journal everymorning like write with a
notebook and my silly littlebrass pen here and I dig it
right.
But the way that I journal nowwould not have been helpful or
probably even possible back whenI was in the thick of my
anxiety and mental health issues.
So I'm a big fan of journalingand even when traditional
(26:19):
journaling can becounterproductive to anxiety
disorder recovery, I'm a fan oftrying to adapt it like I've
described here in this episodeand seeing if you can use it and
if it would work for you.
So consider using your journalto sort of put a bow on this one
to number one, remind you ofwhat recovery is all about, to
help you stay out of the rabbithole of resistance and fixing
(26:39):
and ruminating right.
That's like using those framingstatements and those reminders.
Use your journal to help youteach you how to objectively
describe your experiences andrecognizing repeating patterns
that you want to break andchange.
And use your journal in thiscontext to sort of keep a useful
record of changes in actionthat are helping you break those
(27:02):
maladaptive sort of restrictive, rigid patterns that are having
negative impact on your life.
And you know that's it.
So that's all I'm talking abouthere.
This is a way to take thejournaling habit and if your
traditional journaling ishelping you or keeping you stuck
or frustrated, toss it anddon't journal at all.
If you want, or if you want tocontinue to journal, you may
think about changing to thissort of framework.
(27:22):
Or, to be completely honestwith you, some people do both.
It's really okay to do both, aslong as you have the ability to
know when you're engaged insort of healthy or useful
introspection and when you gotto stick to your anxiety
disorder journal and just dojust the facts.
So if you can do both of thosethings at the same time and that
works for you and it's helpingyou, then cool.
Like I'm a fan of doing that too, I just wanted to introduce
(27:43):
sort of this new framework,either as a temporary substitute
for potential journaling orpossibly side by side.
If you think you can do that,there's nothing wrong with that.
If you've never journaledbefore ever and you want to try
it because you think it's sortof good for anxiety, I'm not
telling you to journal to calmdown.
This is a way to help you kindof go through recovery, based on
the principles and thetheoretical orientation that I'm
always talking about here.
So that was sort of my goal.
(28:05):
I mean I tried to squeeze a lotinto like 28 or 30 minutes of a
podcast episode.
I hope I've been able to do thatand honestly, I've been sort of
thinking lately about doingmaybe a little journaling
workshop that can help peoplewalk through these ideas,
practice them and get a littlecoaching on them.
If you think that that might behelpful, then take a second and
you can go tolearntheanxioustruthcom.
(28:26):
That's where all my workshopsand stuff are.
But you can get on my mail listthere.
It's free and you know, if Iget around to creating a
workshop like this on journaling, I will let you guys know on
the mail list.
Do not worry, I do not sendspam.
I mean honestly, I could barelyfind the time to even do a
monthly newsletter, so hawkinglike crazy stuff at you to get
money from you is absolutely notpart of what I do.
(28:48):
I just thought that this mightbe helpful, and a few people
have asked about a journalingworkshop, so maybe I'll do that.
If you have any comments orquestions on that, by all means
leave them in the comments onYouTube.
Although I know I am like amonth and a half behind on
responding, I promise I'm goingto circle back as soon as I can,
I promise.
Another way to leave feedbackwould be you can do that if
you're listening to the podcastepisode.
Just look at the first link atthe very top of the podcast
(29:11):
description.
You could send me feedback viatext.
I won't see your number.
I'm never going to text youback.
It's totally anonymous, butit's a way to leave a comment or
a question that way, whichshould be pretty convenient for
most people.
It's working out really welland I'm going to use it to do a
Q&A episode, probably in thenext few episodes.
So that is episode 302 of theAnxious Truth in the book.
This is normally where I wouldput in closing music.
(29:31):
Maybe I will, maybe I won't.
We'll just see how much time Ihave for editing.
Thank you for listening,hanging out with me.
I appreciate it.
If you're watching on YouTube,consider subscribing to my
channel if you dig this, likethe video.
That definitely helps me.
Leave a comment.
I promise I will get back fouror five stars if you dig it.
(29:52):
If you really dig it, maybetake a second and write a little
review that says why you dig it.
Because it helps more peoplefind the podcast.
That means more people get helpand that's why I do this.
To begin with and just a quickreminder before we end like, try
and wrap up every episode thisway, no matter what you're doing
today, if you could make somesmall change so that you move a
little bit closer to living alife driven by what you value
(30:14):
and what you want and a littleless based on fear and trying to
fix how you feel by default allthe time, then you are winning.
Even if that is a very small,tiny little change, and even if
you don't make that changetomorrow and you're a little bit
inconsistent, as long as overtime you can trend in that
(30:36):
direction, then you are winningand you will get there.
Every little step counts, everylittle change counts.
Every time you get brave andchallenge the assertion that you
must fix your sensations, yoursymptoms, your thoughts, your
emotions, then you are winning.
You are learning from that, ifyou let yourself learn from that
.
So thanks for hanging out.
I hope you found today helpfulin some way, shape or form.
I'll be back in two weeks withepisode 303.
Don't know what that's going tobe about, but I will be here.
(30:56):
Thanks a bunch for hanging outand I will see you in the next
one.
We are out you.
This week on the Anxious Truth, we're talking
about journaling.
Specifically, we're talkingabout journaling in the context
of anxiety disorders andrecovery from anxiety disorders.
So let's get to that right now.
Journaling is one of the mostpopular sort of default
(00:23):
activities, often connected tomental health and general
wellness, and for good reason,because journaling isn't bad or
evil.
But, as usual, things get a bitupside down when we're talking
about anxiety disorders.
So today we need to talk abouthow journaling fits into the
context of chronic or disorderedanxiety.
Hello everybody, welcome back tothe Anxious Truth.
(00:44):
This is the podcast and theYouTube channel where we talk
about all things anxiety,anxiety disorders and anxiety
disorder recovery.
I'm Drew Linsalata.
I'm creator and host of thispodcast.
I'm a therapist practicingunder supervision, specializing
in the treatment of anxiety andanxiety disorders in the state
of New York.
I'm also a former sufferer ofpanic disorder, agoraphobia, ocd
, depression for many years ofmy life, on and off, but better
(01:06):
now, thankfully.
I'm a social media guy, anadvocator, an educator and a
three-time author on the topicof anxiety and anxiety disorders
.
Yeah, today we are going todiscuss journaling in the
context of anxiety and anxietyrecovery.
But before we get to that, justa quick reminder that the
Anxious Truth is more than justthis YouTube video or this
podcast episode.
There's a ton more resources,including those books that I was
(01:28):
talking about.
There are psychoeducational andinformative workshops, all at a
very low cost.
There's all of the free socialmedia content.
There's 301 previous freepodcast episodes.
Take advantage of all that.
All of that can be found on mywebsite at theanxioustruthcom.
That can be found on my websiteat theanxioustruthcom.
If you really dig my work andwant to find ways to support
that, you'll also find ways todo that on my website.
(01:49):
So again, when you get a chance, check it out, avail yourself
of all the resources that's attheanxioustruthcom.
If you are here today for thefirst time, welcome.
I hope you find what we douseful and, of course, if you're
a returning viewer or listener,welcome back.
I do hope you get something outof today's episode.
So let's talk about journaling.
Journaling is something that iswidely regarded as sort of a
(02:09):
default go-to good idea,especially in mental health and
wellness circles, and I want totalk about that because, while I
am a fan of journaling, I am aconsistent journaler.
Especially over the past two orthree years, the way I journal
now looks very different thanthe way I would have done it
when I was in the thick ofdisordered and chronic anxiety.
(02:30):
So we need to clarify thisJournaling isn't something that
we necessarily have to abandonif we're in the middle of an
anxiety disorder, but I dobelieve that we probably have to
take a hard look at why we'redoing it, how we're doing it and
if we can maybe modify that, atleast for a while, to be a
little bit more in alignmentwith recovery goals that we set
when we are dealing with chronicand disordered anxiety.
So we're going to go over acouple of key points in this
(02:52):
episode, and I want to startwith why we journal and I mean
we like the royal, we not justanxious people, but people in
general.
What are the reasons why peoplelike to journal and think that
journaling is a good idea?
Well, one reason might be tosort of keep a record of our
days, just sort of a historicalrunning narrative of what we did
, and sometimes it's fun or evenuseful in some ways, to look
(03:15):
back and remember what we did ona given day or during a given
period in our lives, and that'spretty cool, there's nothing
wrong with that.
But in the case of ourparticular context.
We would have to get a littlebit more specific here.
For the purposes of chronic anddisordered anxiety recovery,
another reason why people chooseto journal would be to give
ourselves sort of a private orsafe place to express emotions,
(03:37):
especially things that we don'treally necessarily want to share
with another person.
That's really excellent, likeI'm a big fan of that in almost
any context.
For sure, we have to be able toexpress ourselves.
While in the state of chronicor disordered anxiety, sometimes
things get a little skewed andall we keep doing is expressing
the same emotion, which is fear,again and again and again.
We always want to have a placeto productively and in a healthy
(04:00):
way express emotions that aregoing to happen to every human
being.
It's normal and it's kind ofrequired.
So when it comes to likejournaling as a way to express
emotions, I'm a fan.
It's really cool.
Another way that people mighttraditionally use journaling
would be to sort of work throughthose emotions or different
ideas or problems or conflicts.
So you know, et cetera, etcetera.
People will journal to sort oftry to find answers inside
(04:25):
themselves, which cool.
But in this context, anxietyand anxiety disorders I've got
to give you a big nope on that,and there's a reason for that.
So stick with me and I willexplain journaling as a way to
find answers to our thoughts andour feelings and our
experiences and our emotionswhile we are struggling with an
(04:46):
anxiety disorder.
By being extra intentional,introspective tends to be more
problematic than helpful, so wewere going to get to that.
Let's talk about, then, thepitfalls of traditional
journaling.
For the community of people wholisten to this podcast and
follow my work on social media,to this podcast and follow my
work on social media, it'sreally the part where we work
(05:07):
through feelings, emotions,thoughts, ideas, conflicts and
challenges through introspectionand examining ourselves, like
in the case of anxiety andanxiety disorders.
That's where things tend tosort of go off the rails for
people in our community.
It fuels repetitive, compulsive, ruminative habits that really
(05:27):
cause the problem to begin with.
Anxiety disorders largely kindof revolve around falling into
the trap of trying to use a verybasic human ability, which is
figuring things out mentally andcognitively.
This is a trait that helps us,but in anxiety disorders we tend
to try to jam that trait andthat ability into situations
(05:48):
where it just doesn't belong.
It cannot be helpful and itactually turns out being harmful
.
Anxious people in general try tosolve their feelings, thoughts
and bodily sensations, which isnot really a thing for
non-anxious people, and itstarts to get us in trouble.
So the record-keeping aspect ofjournaling in a traditional
(06:09):
sense is also a bit of a trapfor an anxious mind or somebody
in the grips of chronic ordisordered anxiety.
I mean, looking back at ourdays and our emotions and our
experiences can be super usefulor, like I said before, fun in
the right context.
But for an anxious mind that'sin the middle of an anxiety
disorder, record keeping revealskind of a never ending,
(06:30):
constantly looping horror storywhich isn't in any way
productive.
This is something that you'reprobably doing every day, even
if you're not journaling, justrepeating how scary it is and
what it feels like and how hardit is.
This, if you do it formally injournaling, can then really
encourage or lead to diggingfuriously for kind of clues and
(06:50):
hints as to how to fix thosefeelings, those thoughts, those
emotions and sensations.
And that's when things reallyget lit on fire and we wind up
perpetuating the problem.
And of course, if you're new tothis, you might say, whoa, like
my mind is exploding right now.
What is this guy saying?
This is why I said in thebeginning that in the case of
anxiety disorders things tend toget turned kind of upside down
(07:13):
or backwards.
This is very counterintuitiveand common sense often doesn't
apply in our context.
We care about that, we have to.
So let's look at journaling orrecording our thoughts as part
of sort of cognitive behavioraltherapy.
But what I really care about issort of old school CBT the
stuff that was being done in the60s, 70s, 80s, even into the
(07:34):
early 90s, and sadly in somecircles it's still relied on
today, even though we know it'sprobably not a good idea.
So journaling in the case ofsort of traditional or old
school CBT might involve thingslike keeping thought records.
Anybody who's been through aformal course of CBT kind of
using those old schooltraditional techniques, may have
been taught to keep thoughtrecords.
(07:54):
You're recording your thoughts,what triggered it, what were
you doing when you had thesethoughts In that situation?
You're doing it to look fortriggers, often so they can be
avoided or managed, and that isthe opposite of acceptance and
psychological flexibility, whichare really the cornerstones of
more current third wavetreatments for anxiety disorders
, and we care about that.
(08:15):
Then journaling in traditionalCBT often gets used to try to
bring logic and reason to bearon highlighting why anxious
thoughts are irrational whichthey very well be.
But in this situation that'shighlighted in thought records
and CBT journaling for thepurpose of trying to directly
change them through thinking andcognition.
And this doesn't work terriblywell in the context of an actual
(08:36):
anxiety disorder like panicdisorder or health anxiety or
OCD.
It just doesn't work terriblywell.
In the context of an actualanxiety disorder like panic
disorder or health anxiety orOCD, it just doesn't work.
And so in the beginning wewould try to say like, well,
let's journal and use these sortof thought records and use sort
of CBT methods to show you thatyour thoughts are irrational
and not likely to be thecatastrophe that you think.
And then, once you see thatthey're irrational, we can start
(08:59):
to change them simply becauseyou see the irrationality.
And we know that that led tohigher relapse rates, attrition.
There was legit complaintsabout CBT trying to just change
thoughts through logic andreason and Socratic questioning
where, yeah, it was the mosteffective treatment we had but
it often turned out to be notterribly effective on the
(09:21):
longterm because of that.
So that's how journaling wouldbe used in like sort of
traditional or old school CBTand it doesn't really work out
that well.
We had to put that acceptanceand flexibility part into the
into the puzzle and we're goingto get to that.
So am I saying that, likeanxious people, people listening
to this podcast or watchingthis video, if you're dealing
with an anxiety disorder orchronic states of anxiety that
you can't seem to get out fromunderneath, am I saying that we
(09:42):
should never, ever journal?
Well, I'm not really sayingthat at all.
I mean, if journaling is athing that you enjoy doing,
there's literally nothing wrongwith that.
We never want to take awaythings that are a source of
strength or coping.
But if your journal istraditional in its nature and
you're journaling right now andyour journal, if you look at the
(10:02):
last few weeks or few months,sort of looks like a never
ending, continuously loopingepisode of Stranger Things and
you've been like tryingspecifically to fix your anxiety
through the act of journalingand it's not working out for you
so well and you're gettingreally frustrated by that and
you started to think that you'renever going to get better, then
it might be time to at leastrevisit the habit.
(10:22):
Now, a recovered person,somebody who's gotten past that
chronic or disordered state,might return to more traditional
forms of journaling, like as apersonal history and
introspection tool, which iscool.
But a chronically anxiousperson might need to consider
modifying their journaling stylefor a while.
So if you are adyed-in-the-wool journaler and
you love that, I'm not trying totake that away from you, but
(10:45):
what I'm going to suggest todayis that we may have to sort of
shift gears and use journalingin a little bit of a different
way for now, until you can getout of the, you know, out of the
weeds and out of the deep water, get your head above water,
stand up, put out the fire.
Then maybe you can go back tosort of that old school way of
journaling when it fits yourcontext again.
So if you are dealing with ananxiety disorder like panic
(11:08):
disorder or OCD OCD isn'ttechnically in the anxiety
disorder category anymore, butit's closely enough related
agoraphobia, health anxiety,that sort of stuff, social
anxiety how can we usejournaling Like?
What are the top tips foranxiety disorder journaling?
Well, the first one that I willgive you would be use your
journal as, like a standingreminder.
(11:28):
What I mean by that is it'stotally cool to start every
journal entry with a framingstatement or a reminder Like
these could be prompts, butthey're not really prompts,
they're just reminders that youmight have sort of automatically
built into the top of everyjournal entry.
Some examples of those might beI don't have to figure out or
(11:48):
fix my feelings all the time.
I might put a reminder in thebeginning of every journal entry
that says all thoughts areallowed.
I don't have to control mythoughts right.
I might use one that saysfrightened bodies do frightened
body things and that's normal,even when it's scary.
So they wouldn't really beprompts, they'd be more like
(12:09):
reminders at the top of everyjournal entry and you could
start to see how statements likethat framing statements,
reminders can help you rememberwhat your recovery framework
kind of looks like before youfall into the trap of digging
into thoughts and feelings andsensation with the purpose of
sort of trying to solve them.
So one tip for anxiety disorderjournaling would be start your
(12:32):
journal entries with thoseframing statements or those
reminders.
It's like prompts, but youdon't really answer them,
they're just reminders.
So the next tip I would say iswhen you're sort of starting
either starting to journal inthe context of an anxiety
disorder or modifying yourjournal habit to sort of fit
your anxiety disorder recovery.
One thing that I would say isyou want to try and focus your
(12:55):
journaling on four key things.
The first one is what happened,that is, what did you feel or
think or experience?
What emotions did youexperience as a result of that
and here's a hint or a spoileralert that will usually be fear,
uncertainty or feelingvulnerable?
So just what did I experience?
(13:16):
What actually happened and whatdid I feel when this happened?
Sometimes the feeling isexactly what happened, or
sometimes the thought is thehappening.
That's okay, just describe it.
The second thing you want tofocus on is what did you do in
response to what happened Eitherthe sensation or the trigger in
the world that set you off andmade you anxious, or the thought
(13:38):
that you had, or whatever it is.
What did you do in response tothat?
In this situation, I would say,be specific.
Did you do something specificbehaviorally in response to that
experience?
Or did you do somethingspecific mentally, like engage
in active thinking or problemsolving or maybe fact checking
or verifying to try and makeyourself feel better?
(13:58):
Just record that.
What did I do behaviorally andmentally in response to this
thing that happened.
That made me feel a certain way.
The third thing you'd want tofocus on in your journal entry
would be how did things turn outLike?
What was the outcome?
Did your behavioral or mentalresponse that you noted
previously change anything?
(14:19):
Did it make you feel better,even just in the moment?
And then the fourth thing andthis is probably the most
important one to me is is this apattern?
If you look back over the lastfew weeks or maybe even months
in your journal, can you refine?
Can you find repeated entriesand instances that look either
(14:39):
identical or an awful lot likethe one you're making right now?
Is this recurring?
And if it is, compare that tothe outcome you recorded.
If ruminating or activelyworrying or going into escape or
avoidance or saving mode madeyou feel better in that moment,
then why does this keephappening?
Notice that you keep writingthe same journal entry again and
(15:02):
again.
Now it might be better thanjust recounting.
You know recounting a nightmareover and over.
But if you're being veryfactual and sort of objective in
this and we're going to get tothat in a second why do you keep
making the same general kind ofentry?
So look for patterns right.
You can use your sort of anxietydisorder or anxiety recovery
journaling style to help youfind repeating patterns, because
(15:23):
they matter.
They are clues, they are flags,they are, you know, maps for us
to follow.
And here's a pro tip whenyou're working on this, do not
attempt to interpret what youput in your journal entry.
Just stick to the facts.
It's just the facts.
So, for instance, say justexactly what happened in your
body, not what it felt like orwhat you thought it meant.
(15:45):
Say what emotions youexperienced I was angry, I was
afraid, I was frustrated, I wassad, I was very afraid will
suffice.
You don't need to add the partwhere it felt like you might
pass out or die or make a sceneor go insane or whatever it is
you fear.
We really want to be objectivehere to as great a degree as we
(16:06):
can.
So when we're journaling, Ijust want you to maybe focus on
those four things and be asobjective as possible, without
adding a story to it or yourinterpretations of what it felt
like or what you were afraidmight happen as a result.
So the next tip I can give yousort of for anxiety disorder
journaling would be in the nextphase, once you sort of get this
(16:27):
down and you start to recordyour experiences this way,
subjectively, without addingstories and without turning them
into repeated like nightmarishdigging for clues, then what can
you change?
Like this should lead us tolike well, what can I start to
change?
So, if your journaling, youranxiety disorder journaling, is
revealing sort of a repeatingpattern of trigger escape, avoid
(16:51):
, repeat then now it might betime to set up a bit of a new
journal framework, once you seethat, to help to change that.
And that would be based onreally three statements, which
is I felt I did, and then Iwound up dot, dot, dot, and it's
going to sound familiar to thethings I just told you.
Right, but this is where I wantthings to get a little bit more
(17:14):
descriptive, if you will.
Right, we want to record actualmental and behavioral action,
to build on a record you canrely on, and this is a part
where we can start to bring alittle bit more of those
catastrophic interpretationsback into the picture.
But for a reason.
So let me give you an example.
Today I had thoughts aboutinsanity.
Again I was really afraid.
(17:35):
Again it got so bad.
It felt like I was going tosnap and totally lose myself
forever, which is my biggestfear.
I was very worried that thisexperience would be too much,
that I'm too weak and it wouldbreak me permanently.
I did.
That's the second one.
I did my best to allow allthose thoughts without fighting
them.
I tried my best to relax mybody and let it do whatever it
(17:56):
thought it needed to do, butthat was really hard.
I slipped up a few times, Iwent back into fighting and
resisting mode and I really hadto keep reminding myself of what
to do.
It was really hard and this isa hard thing to do, and then I
wound up.
There's that third one.
Okay, still afraid and worried.
I'm still afraid and anxiousnow, but if I really look at
(18:16):
this, I could see that I didn'ttake my usual sort of evasive or
safety action and I was able tomove through those fears when
they flared up throughout theday.
So see, the difference Likewhat I described is a very
different journal entry than youmight think of journaling on a
traditional sense, from like awellness or mental health
standpoint, because now whatwe've made is like a useful
(18:39):
record or that you're nevergoing to get better.
These are common thoughts amonganxious people.
You can stop for a second andlook back on these journal
entries to inject some objectivereality into that process Could
be really useful, right.
So often, like in my work thatI do in my social media
(19:03):
community, I will get people whowill ask me.
Or if you follow people who arelike me, like Josh Fletcher, my
podcast on Disordered, or KimQuinlan or Lauren Rosen or
whoever you know the usualsuspects, joanna Hardis people
might reach out to people likeus to provide that.
Oh, I'm in a setback, right,I'm just worried that I'm never
going to get better.
You know what do I do with that, drew?
Well, here, if you journal thisway and kind of use this sort of
(19:25):
rough framework that I'm givingyou, you don't even really have
to ask me, or Josh or Lauren orJoanna or Kim.
You can look back at your ownjournal and see what's going on.
Right, it's way better thanasking a third party that you
don't even know, and it's way,way better than reading back
through 104 entries you know,dating back six months that all
sound like the end of the worldand ultimately give you zero
(19:48):
credit for what is an importantpart of recovery, and that is
sort of your innate, innateability to be human and
experience human things likefear or uncertainty or anxiety
or even panic attacks, right.
So think about that.
What I'm trying to give youhere is a way to kind of change
your journaling framework sothat it can be truly useful to
you and not just a fruitless,futile, like frantic attempt to
(20:10):
try to fix your feelings andyour sensations by writing and
thinking and digging right,because that doesn't really work
out so well.
So now let's talk aboutjournaling sort of going forward
and as you progress and thatwould be start to look a little
different too, or it might.
Now this is where it getsreally individual, right.
But as you start to progress inyour recovery, maybe you're
finding that you're lessreactive to your sensations or
(20:32):
thoughts or emotions than youused to be.
Maybe you don't feel that theyare as continuously threatening
or urgent as they used to be.
That's good.
These are signs of progress,right, you're kind of getting
your life back.
You might find in thatsituation that you're starting
to experience emotions andthoughts again like a
non-anxious person might, likethey can stand alone and then
they might actually have valueand you might be able to take
(20:55):
actual useful action in responseto those internal experience.
So, for example, as you'refurther down the road in
recovery or you're a fullyrecovered person, when being
really angry at your sister forinstance because he had an
argument is just being reallyangry about your sister and it's
no longer connected tocatastrophic things like fearing
a panic attack or worrying thatyou might go insane you might
(21:18):
be able to use your journalagain in more of sort of a
traditional way to explore thatfeeling or express it in a safe
way.
Maybe check out the situationthat caused it, think about that
a little bit and maybe decidewhat you're going to do next to
address it.
You know, do I have to likechange the way I relate to my
sister if I'm angry at her?
Or do I want to ask her to notbe so rude to me next time?
(21:39):
Or do I want to do nothing andjust say, well, we had a fight,
because sometimes siblings fightLike?
Your journal might become usefulagain in that respect.
That's the way non-anxiouspeople often use journaling, and
if you've always been ajournaler in that traditional
style, then like congratulations, you're getting something that
you love and have found usefulin the past.
You're getting it back againLike pat yourself on the back
(22:00):
for making some progress andbeing able to return to things
that actually matter to you ormake you happy or make you feel
better or help you just betterbe better at life.
And if you've never been ajournal kind of person before,
you tried sort of this anxietyrecovery journaling that I'm
describing today and you findthat you have less need to make
sort of the anxiety disorderentries that I'm describing in
(22:23):
this podcast episode or thisvideo, you might decide to
explore traditional journalingto see how that fits into sort
of your emerging recovery.
I mean, you might like it oryou might find it totally
useless.
And one day, when you aren'talways afraid of your own body
and mind anymore, you might makeyour very last anxiety disorder
journal entry and never lookback.
That can happen and that's finetoo.
(22:45):
So this wouldn't necessarily bea framework that I'm giving you
today for forever journaling.
It's within a specific contextand then when you get out of
this particular context and yourlife changes and your situation
changes, you may choose toreturn to traditional journaling
or try traditional journalingor burn your journals and never
do it again.
That's totally up to you.
It's totally fine.
There's no right answer there.
(23:07):
So as we start to get liketoward the end of the episode
here, I want to talk about somecriticisms of this, because I
know when you look at this stuffthrough the lens of general
wellness or emotional support ormental health, personal growth,
telling somebody to not fullydescribe and honor air quotes,
their thoughts and emotions,might seem ridiculous or you
(23:28):
might even feel like this isharmful, like what is this guy
talking about?
So if you stumble upon thisvideo or this podcast episode
and you come from moretraditional mental health or
wellness circles, you mightthink what is this guy talking
about?
How could he tell people to notactually get in touch with
their feelings?
And I really understand wherethat comes from.
But I just have to simplyremind you that in this podcast,
(23:49):
on this YouTube channel, I amaddressing a very specific issue
in context chronic anddisordered states of anxiety.
This is its own animal, if youwill, and the rules tend to get
all thrown up in the air and getvery counterintuitive in this
context, because you are certainthat the key to recovery from
(24:10):
panic disorder or, say, ocd,just for example, must lie in
uncovering hidden pain or otherhighly emotionally introspective
activities like traditionaljournaling, where you're doing
emotion dumps and figuring outwhere it came from and what is
this telling you.
Well then, you are certainlyfree to disagree with me and
(24:30):
move on if you want to, but justknow that in very large
populations of people thatsuffer from the kind of mental
health issue that we're talkingabout here, that kind of thing
is most times harmful ratherthan helpful and really, at a
minimum, it winds up being, formost of these people, fruitless
and frustrating.
So we have to take the specificcontext into account.
(24:52):
Nobody here me, there's, no oneelse here, it is just me.
Nobody here is suggesting thatwe ignore emotions or feelings
forever like robots or just letthe world like kick our butts in
an entirely passive way forever.
That's not what I'm saying, butwe do have to recognize that
when active resistance and likeactive mental and emotional
(25:14):
problem solving goes off therails and fuels the struggles
we're addressing when I blatherinto this microphone every two
weeks, then we may have toactually change things up a
little bit and start to thinkabout how we might consider a
different approach Might.
So just wanted to address that,because I know that criticism
will come up and it can be avalid criticism if taken out of
(25:36):
context.
So let's wrap it up.
We're 25 minutes into it.
It's a little longer than Iwanted to go, but you guys know
me by now If you listen longenough.
Sometimes it kind of sounds likean episode like this is an
anti-journaling episode.
I'm not anti-journaling episode.
I'm not anti-journaling.
I myself have been journalingvery consistently for the last
two or three years now and Ihave actually come to love it.
(25:56):
Like I write I can't believe it.
I write in a journal everymorning like write with a
notebook and my silly littlebrass pen here and I dig it
right.
But the way that I journal nowwould not have been helpful or
probably even possible back whenI was in the thick of my
anxiety and mental health issues.
So I'm a big fan of journalingand even when traditional
(26:19):
journaling can becounterproductive to anxiety
disorder recovery, I'm a fan oftrying to adapt it like I've
described here in this episodeand seeing if you can use it and
if it would work for you.
So consider using your journalto sort of put a bow on this one
to number one, remind you ofwhat recovery is all about, to
help you stay out of the rabbithole of resistance and fixing
(26:39):
and ruminating right.
That's like using those framingstatements and those reminders.
Use your journal to help youteach you how to objectively
describe your experiences andrecognizing repeating patterns
that you want to break andchange.
And use your journal in thiscontext to sort of keep a useful
record of changes in actionthat are helping you break those
(27:02):
maladaptive sort of restrictive, rigid patterns that are having
negative impact on your life.
And you know that's it.
So that's all I'm talking abouthere.
This is a way to take thejournaling habit and if your
traditional journaling ishelping you or keeping you stuck
or frustrated, toss it anddon't journal at all.
If you want, or if you want tocontinue to journal, you may
think about changing to thissort of framework.
(27:22):
Or, to be completely honestwith you, some people do both.
It's really okay to do both, aslong as you have the ability to
know when you're engaged insort of healthy or useful
introspection and when you gotto stick to your anxiety
disorder journal and just dojust the facts.
So if you can do both of thosethings at the same time and that
works for you and it's helpingyou, then cool.
Like I'm a fan of doing that too, I just wanted to introduce
(27:43):
sort of this new framework,either as a temporary substitute
for potential journaling orpossibly side by side.
If you think you can do that,there's nothing wrong with that.
If you've never journaledbefore ever and you want to try
it because you think it's sortof good for anxiety, I'm not
telling you to journal to calmdown.
This is a way to help you kindof go through recovery, based on
the principles and thetheoretical orientation that I'm
always talking about here.
So that was sort of my goal.
(28:05):
I mean I tried to squeeze a lotinto like 28 or 30 minutes of a
podcast episode.
I hope I've been able to do thatand honestly, I've been sort of
thinking lately about doingmaybe a little journaling
workshop that can help peoplewalk through these ideas,
practice them and get a littlecoaching on them.
If you think that that might behelpful, then take a second and
you can go tolearntheanxioustruthcom.
(28:26):
That's where all my workshopsand stuff are.
But you can get on my mail listthere.
It's free and you know, if Iget around to creating a
workshop like this on journaling, I will let you guys know on
the mail list.
Do not worry, I do not sendspam.
I mean honestly, I could barelyfind the time to even do a
monthly newsletter, so hawkinglike crazy stuff at you to get
money from you is absolutely notpart of what I do.
(28:48):
I just thought that this mightbe helpful, and a few people
have asked about a journalingworkshop, so maybe I'll do that.
If you have any comments orquestions on that, by all means
leave them in the comments onYouTube.
Although I know I am like amonth and a half behind on
responding, I promise I'm goingto circle back as soon as I can,
I promise.
Another way to leave feedbackwould be you can do that if
you're listening to the podcastepisode.
Just look at the first link atthe very top of the podcast
(29:11):
description.
You could send me feedback viatext.
I won't see your number.
I'm never going to text youback.
It's totally anonymous, butit's a way to leave a comment or
a question that way, whichshould be pretty convenient for
most people.
It's working out really welland I'm going to use it to do a
Q&A episode, probably in thenext few episodes.
So that is episode 302 of theAnxious Truth in the book.
This is normally where I wouldput in closing music.
(29:31):
Maybe I will, maybe I won't.
We'll just see how much time Ihave for editing.
Thank you for listening,hanging out with me.
I appreciate it.
If you're watching on YouTube,consider subscribing to my
channel if you dig this, likethe video.
That definitely helps me.
Leave a comment.
I promise I will get back fouror five stars if you dig it.
(29:52):
If you really dig it, maybetake a second and write a little
review that says why you dig it.
Because it helps more peoplefind the podcast.
That means more people get helpand that's why I do this.
To begin with and just a quickreminder before we end like, try
and wrap up every episode thisway, no matter what you're doing
today, if you could make somesmall change so that you move a
little bit closer to living alife driven by what you value
(30:14):
and what you want and a littleless based on fear and trying to
fix how you feel by default allthe time, then you are winning.
Even if that is a very small,tiny little change, and even if
you don't make that changetomorrow and you're a little bit
inconsistent, as long as overtime you can trend in that
(30:36):
direction, then you are winningand you will get there.
Every little step counts, everylittle change counts.
Every time you get brave andchallenge the assertion that you
must fix your sensations, yoursymptoms, your thoughts, your
emotions, then you are winning.
You are learning from that, ifyou let yourself learn from that
.
So thanks for hanging out.
I hope you found today helpfulin some way, shape or form.
I'll be back in two weeks withepisode 303.
Don't know what that's going tobe about, but I will be here.
(30:56):
Thanks a bunch for hanging outand I will see you in the next
one.
We are out you.
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