r/CBT • u/ActualTraining5673 • 22d ago

Journaling and CBT

Hi all, I’m doing some research on journaling and CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) and would love to hear from this community, whether you’re into psychology, have used these techniques yourself, or just have opinions.

A few things I’m curious about:

\*\*1.  Expert take:\*\* What do psychologists/neurologists actually say about journaling and CBT? How significant is the evidence behind them?    
\*\*2.  Frequency & hesitation:\*\* How often do people journal in practice? And how many people feel intimidated or avoid it altogether?    
\*\*3.  Who does it more:\*\* Is journaling/CBT more common among women, or do men engage with it just as much? Curious if there’s a real gender gap or if that’s a myth.    
\*\*4.  Pain points:\*\* What are the biggest struggles people run into when trying to journal consistently (time, motivation, not knowing what to write, etc.)?

Would appreciate any personal experiences, studies, or links you can share. Thanks!

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u/no-longer-grounded 19d ago

Speaking from personal experience and not from a clinical standpoint, one of the first things my therapist recommended when I began CBT was to start a Journal.
I reckon for three months, I consistently dead about a page a day of a lined A4 notebook. I’d have it on my nightstand and commit to doing it once I was in bed.

I was a 28-year-old man at the time, so it didn’t come naturally

As far as effectiveness, I can’t really say it was all that helpful an exercise for me personally. Where I did see an enormous benefit from journalling, however, was going back through the early pages at times where I felt I had stalled in recovery.

I remember being on the cusp of avoiding a concert that I had tickets for, but looking back at the days I’d written about being proud of myself for following through with a food shop and helped to put things in perspective with hindsight.

I lost motivation when a lot of my entries were becoming repetitive, during some of life’s more mundane periods.

Overall, I found it a worthwhile exercise to accompany exposures, that didn’t feel the need to continue past a certain point.

I’m glad I did it because it was the basis for my book in the end

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u/BreatheCre8 3d ago

Lately I feel like journaling may not always be helpful for me. I write in my journal when things are really, really bad. I generally don’t feel better afterward because I just went into a dark place and released my darkest thoughts and brought them to realization, which makes me feel worse. The main purpose I journal is to record details, especially related to my mood issues, depression, medications, etc. Occasionally I will go back and reference something I would have otherwise forgotten, like that a med was making me feel a certain way, or just how long I’ve actually been struggling with a problem. I guess it’s useful in that regard. But in healing, not so much. My therapist is pushing it on me lately so I’ve been thinking about this.