Lockdown Mental Health: Dear Diary

Diaries. For centuries people have kept diaries to chronicle their lives, vent their frustrations and immortalise their thoughts. It’s commonly said, but diaries really are a cathartic way of clearing your mind and feeling the weight on your shoulders lift a little bit.

When I was younger I used to keep diaries all the time and I still have some of them to this day. None of them are particularly interesting (though I did, for a reason I cannot remember, write a cake recipe in one which is quite good so, thanks younger me) but they served a purpose as a sense of release. As I got older, I tried to keep diaries and lost count of the number of times I tried and retried, and inevitably gave up. That is until the past couple of years when I stopped trying to be so rigid with them, i.e. don’t force yourself to write in it everyday, and instead opted for a different approach. I wrote when I needed to. Sometimes if I have a really good day, I want to remember that feeling or that moment, so I commit it to memory on the pages of the diary. Other days are ones I’d rather forget, but I know if I don’t get things off my chest I’ll be toiling over them for days, so I write it down. Sometimes if I’m sad or worried, I’ll write it down and close the book as if to do the same to the feeling, and honestly, sometimes it works.

I also realised that a written diary doesn’t always need to be your only one, sometimes the notes app on a phone will work just as well (and if needs be you can delete it later). It might not seem as cathartic tapping away at a phone screen but believe me it can be. The beauty of a note on your phone is that it can be written anywhere at anytime and secondly, and perhaps a more important one to me, is that sometimes my brain moves to fast for my hand to write. I can tip tap away at a much greater speed that can keep up with my endless trail of mundane thought until I’m satisfied.

The one thing I have always felt about keeping a diary, whether it be a physical or digital version, is that it never makes me feel worse. It can be a great way to reflect, a great way to review and a great way to release. A lot of people have been taking up diary writing over the lockdown period, and indeed 2020, so if you feel like it could help, give it a go, it can’t hurt.