Journaling with OCD: How to integrate without anxiety and compulsion

Journaling is a powerful tool which can help to increase self-awareness and improve mental health.  However, for those of us with OCD, it can present a unique set of challenges despite its many potential benefits.   

By creating an outlet for expression, journaling provides an opportunity for reflection that can lead to greater self-understanding and personal growth.

Journaling can feel conversational, like a venting session with a non-judgemental friend.  Often journaling can offer a quick and low-cost option for support in the moment when a person needs it most (usually in the late evening, when anxiety and depression can spike). Additionally, journaling can very effectively support clients in reaching insights on behaviors and make mindful decisions in the future. Furthermore, gratitude journaling can be an effective way to shift from a negative mental state to a more positive.  

However, for those people with OCD, journaling can become a compulsive practice, and also a means for reinforcing anxiety. 

OCD cycles with journaling can include writing and rewriting anxious thoughts, thus feeding into the cycle of repetition that fuels the obsessive beliefs.  SImilarly, when journaling, an individual may feel the need to write down all the obsessive thoughts (sometimes the intrusive thoughts), thus legitimizing their belief that these thoughts are synonymous with the truth rather than thoughts of questionable legitimacy.  

Furthermore, many believe that journaling is predicated on a regular practice, and like prayer and meditation, OCD can take over journaling and make it a “must” rather than a “want.” 

Every positive coping mechanism can be morphed by compulsivity, but journaling has the additional OCD incentive of creating a physical product which may need to feel “just right.”  With the just right compulsion, something is produced, repeated, or done well beyond when it is satisfying or helpful, but rather into an ethereal feeling is achieved where the OCD individual can finally stop.  

While journaling can be an effective tool for enhancing mental health, and ultimately lead to better overall wellbeing, it may be helpful for individuals with OCD to journal under the guidance of a mental health professional. 

When working with individuals with OCD, I create a shared doc that becomes a recovery journal for both therapist and client during the process of treatment.  The client begins the work by creating a list of compulsions, obsessions, intrusive thoughts, and phobias.  While giving these aspects space in the document, we also do not over-index to these maladaptive thoughts.  We work on crossing them out within the same doc, and create continuous entries that record progress and exposures.  After a few months, a client can look back at the entries and see how far they have come in facing their fears and mitigating their compulsions.   

Although tricky for those with anxiety disorders, journaling can be an effective tool for managing emotions, gaining insight into triggers and thought patterns, expressing creativity, and building confidence. With the right approach and strategies in place, journaling can help people with OCD gain control over their thoughts and emotions.

To learn more about our OCD treatment options, please contact Kairos Wellness Collective today.