Journal Writing Prompts for Depression and Anxiety

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I’m happy you found your way to my blog!

My name is Faith Mariah and I’ve been managing clinical depression and anxiety for as long as I can remember.

Want to know my #1 weapon?

My journal.

Writing has always been one of the main tools I use to cope with my anxiety and depression.

When there’s just too much garbage in my head or I just feel like shit I can usually sort it out by sitting down with my journal and just writing for a while.

It can help you clear your thoughts and process your feelings.

Take a crack at it and see if it makes you feel better.

If you’re struggling I urge you not to suffer in silence. I waited for years to talk to someone and it cost me years of my life that I will never get back.

Don’t let this happen to you.

Reach out to your doctor or a therapist (I use BetterHelp for affordable online therapy) and get the resources you need.

Here are some journal prompts for depression and anxiety to get you started.

If you’re looking for other mental health resources be sure to check out my other posts about depression and check out my mental health podcast on Podban or iTunes.

PS
Make sure to grab the free mental health printable below

 

Mental Health Benefits From Journaling

Journaling offers tons of benefits for your mental health.

If you are struggling with depression and anxiety adding a journaling practice can help you start feeling better.

This is a cheap and easy practice that is great for your mental health and easily be added to your daily routine.

If you’re struggling with depression and anxiety I really recommend that you give it a shot. Here are some of the mental health benefits from journaling.

  • Less stress overall
  • Increased happiness
  • More likely to achieve goals
  • Increased emotional intelligence
  • Developing self-awareness
  • Better memory
  • Ability to emotionally heal trauma
  • More problem-solving skills
  • Able to get clarity in confusing situations

Starting a Journal Practice

If you haven’t journaled before check out this video for some great tips to help you get started.

To get the full mental health benefits of journaling you should try to start a daily journal practice.

Try to add it into your morning or evening practice so you can start to make it a habit.

Picking a specific time of day that you’re going to do your journaling will help you get it done every day.

The more you do it the easier the practice will be to maintain.

I like to do 30-day challenges to help me develop new habits. Right now I am doing one with alcohol.

I find that 30 days is an achievable amount of time but it is still enough time that I can see the results and be motivated to continue the practice.

  1. Write about a difficult time in your life that you overcame

  2. Describe how you want your life to look in 5, 10 and 20 years

  3. What are the three things that scare you the most and why?

  4. Name five moments when you were ecstatically happy

  5. What are three things you can do to help your mental health?

  6. When times get tough I want to remember that _______

  7. My greatest qualities are ________

  8. 10 things I feel thankful for are __________

  9. Right now my greatest challenge is ________

  10. This week I am looking forward to these three things _________

  11. On a scale of 1-10 my mental health is at a _____ because

  12. If I could meet anyone in the world I would like to meet _____ because

  13. Describe a situation where everything worked out for you

  14. Who has been your biggest supporter? Write that person a thank you letter

  15. Today my victories were:

  16. What was your biggest learning moment this week?

  17. Write a thank you letter to your body

  18.  If you could go anywhere in the world where would you go and why?

  19. Describe your biggest accomplishment and why it means so much to you

  20. No matter how terrible my day is these ten things can always make me feel better:

  21. The biggest lessons I’ve learned from anxiety are:

  22. If I didn’t have depression I would have never learned________________

  23. If I didn’t have any fear I would ________________

  24. What was your biggest failure and what did you learn from it?

  25. What do you wish most people knew about you and why?

  26. What was your most embarrassing moment and why?

  27. A fear I would like to overcome is ________. I can do these things to start overcoming it:

  28. If you could change anything about yourself what would it be and why?

  29. Describe your happiest and saddest childhood memories

  30. If I could have any career I would be a __________ because:

  31. What was the last thing that made you feel deeply frustrated?

  32. How do you want to be remembered?

  33. Describe a time when you had to make a really hard choice

  34. What would your life be like if you didn’t have (depression, anxiety, etc)?

  35. What is a trait that you admire most in others? In what ways do you see that trait in yourself

  36. Name ten things you can start doing to take care of yourself?

  37. What are your ten worst habits and how do they impact your life?

  38. Describe a time when you sabotaged a good situation for yourself. Explore why you did that

  39. What would unconditional love look like for you? What would it feel like?

  40. If you had to pick one day to relive over and over for the rest of your life what would it be and why?

  41. Describe your perfect relationship

  42. How would you describe yourself to a stranger?

  43. What are your ten best talents?

  44. What was the best compliment you ever received?

  45. What is the most unique thing about you? Do you like to hide it or let it show?

  46. If you knew this was your last day on earth what would you do?

  47. Name ten songs that make you feel pumped

  48. If you could achieve anything in your life what would it be?

  49. What friendship that you’ve had was the most meaningful?

I hope you found these journaling prompts for depression and anxiety useful.

I usually keep this list by my bed and I’ll use a couple of the prompts and write in my journal each night.

On nights when I don’t feel like I have anything to write about I find the prompts really helpful. I hope you found this helpful 🙂 You can also check out my other posts on depression.

Want to use these later? Click here to pin these journal prompts to your favorite Pinterest board!

Mental health journal prompts to help manage anxiety and depression

 

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9 thoughts on “Journal Writing Prompts for Depression and Anxiety

  1. I LOVE this list of prompts. I could fill several pages on one question. You can not help but be enlightened . I will be taking this to my next group therapy session. Thank you Thank you Thank you ?✌?

  2. Thank you so much for this list! I think a lot of these would be amazing blog post ideas and I hope you don’t mind if I use some of them for inspiration! Awesome list and awesome site!

  3. I think one of the only prompts that I have a negative view on is “Describe a time when you sabotaged a good situation for yourself. Explore why you did that” because that will only make me think of myself in a more negative way if how I am interpreting the prompt correctly
    Other than that bravo

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