This Journaling Method May Help with Anxious Thoughts
Try this if COVID-19 has your brain running like a hamster wheel.
Journaling is a well-known method for dealing with anxious thoughts. It can help you slow down your racing thoughts, get mentally organized, sort out your priorities, and more. The problem is, if you’re not used to journaling, the blank page in front of you can be daunting. What do you write?
“One of the techniques we oftentimes use when we are working with people dealing with a lot of anxiety is something called a thought record,” says Susan Samuels, MD, psychiatrist at NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine.
A thought record is a tool of cognitive behavioral therapy. The goal is to help you challenge your own thoughts to see if they’re accurate or biased, which can then help you reframe your thinking.
“In this thought record, you would write down whatever that anxious thought is. Allow yourself to feel validated by writing down that thought,” says Dr. Samuels. Resist the urge to judge your own thought or put yourself down for it.
“Then, you write down evidence that would support that thought, and evidence that might not support that thought and go against that thought,” says Dr. Samuels. Evidence may include images or thoughts that led to the negative thought.
The last step is to reflect on everything you have written and synthesize it by reframing your original thought from the start of the activity. Maybe it’s changed a lot; maybe one or two words have changed. The important thing is that you have considered new perspectives and information, and used that info to reframe your thinking.
BTW, if the blank page is still stressing you out, you can create a thought record template or print one from online to give yourself a little more structure.
Need more tips to deal with anxious thoughts?
Dr. Samuels is an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry and clinical pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine and an assistant attending psychiatrist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.
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So when we're feeling particularly anxious,
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sometimes it's actually helpful to think about
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a reframe of that anxious thought.
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One of the techniques we oftentimes use
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when we are working with people
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dealing with a lot of anxiety
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is something called a thought record.
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In this thought record, you would write down
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whatever that anxious thought is.
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Allow yourself to feel validated by writing down that thought.
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And then, you write down evidence that would support that thought,
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and evidence that might not support that thought
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and go against that thought.
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Think if maybe you could challenge it a little bit
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and then come up with a new thought based on those two lists.
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Then you're able to reframe the initial thought
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based on what you've just written down,
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and perhaps feel a little bit less anxious.
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Regardless of what's going on outside,
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you can still feel somewhat grounded in your day and in yourself.
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Dubord G. Part 9. Thought records. Can Fam Physician. 2011 Aug;57(8):913-4.
Stress and coping. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020. (Accessed on May 11, 2020 at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/managing-stress-anxiety.html.)