Importance of Journaling at Family Guide

A Family Guide to Keeping Youth Mentally Healthy & Drug Free

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Start Talking Before They Start Drinking

Young people view more than 40,000 ads per year on television alone and increasingly are being exposed to advertising on the Internet, in magazines, and in schools.

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Keeping a personal journal is an easy and healthy way for people to express themselves. Journaling can help young people by providing a safe space for them to write down their thoughts, opinions, and feelings. Whatever your child would like to include is OK. Encourage your child to write whatever comes to mind. Writing regularly helps him get in the habit of keeping a journal.

Any day is a great day to start writing in a journal. A journal can be as simple as a spiral notebook or notepad. If your child doesn’t know where to start, lists are a great way to get the ball rolling. Suggest making lists of favorite things, dreams, or future goals. Let your child know she can write about what her days are like, describe her hopes and fears, or just complain if something’s bothering her. A journal can be an outlet to let uncomfortable feelings out, so your child can better deal with stress, grief, and anger.

If your child is having trouble talking about a tough subject, suggest that he write about it in his journal first. He may find that writing his thoughts down allows him to think about them in different ways. Writing can make thoughts easier to talk about.

If writing is not a natural activity and does not feel good, there are lots of other ways to use a journal. A child could draw, color, paint, or cut and paste a collage out of magazine images. Sometimes it’s hard to put feelings into words, so let your child know she can be creative and express those feelings in different ways. Journaling is much more than just words on a page—it’s an expression of feelings! She can try writing a short story, a song, or poem, or whatever feels right. She can use her journal as a scrapbook and include photographs, postcards, and mementos like movie ticket stubs.

Writing in a journal can be a very personal experience. If your child wants to keep it private, that’s okay. Let him know he can keep it out of sight or in a secret place so no one else can read it. Promise him that you won’t peek. Your child should feel confident that he can say what he wants to say in his journal. And it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t write in complete sentences or has lots of misspellings. Let your child’s journal reflect who he is!

Online safety

Some people use free online journals, but it’s not always safe to have personal information floating around cyberspace. Encourage your child to keep a notebook instead of an online journal. Be sure to monitor your child’s online activity. Let your child know that while she might be using a computer at home or at school, or other places where she feels safe, she should never reveal personal information, such as address, telephone number, or school name. She should never agree to meet anyone in person. It’s a great idea to use a screen name that doesn’t contain any personal information. For example, she can try something like “bangsondrums” or “2ndbasethief" instead of her full name.