"For those dealing with anxiety, journaling can be very helpful in that it not only allows you to release your thoughts on paper, but it also allows you to monitor your thoughts and identify thought patterns and triggers," Kim Boone, MA, LMHC, MATS, a clinical director at Recovery Works Merrillville, told POPSUGAR. Kim recommends those with anxiety use a cognitive-behavioral therapy tool called a thought record.
"This technique allows one to track their thought and behavioral patterns in the hopes that after consistently reviewing the negative or maladaptive thought patterns and behavioral responses it will prompt a need to change," she explained. Kim finds this method beneficial because visualizing how we respond and react to situations on paper "puts things in perspective in a way that makes us want to change."
Another technique she recommends is to write out everything you're thinking, "but for every irrational thought, write a thought that is less harmful or an alternative to the problem that is not as debilitating as the current perceived outcome." This technique will give you another way to approach the situation and teach you how to challenge your negative thoughts, according to Kim.
