Dear diary...

[Asako]

Good news everyone. ^.^ I've started a diary of sorts on my laptop for my therapist. The up-side? None of you will have to deal with pages-long OPs from me. =D So, what started this idea of a diary? Well, I've always been a creative person and it's something my therapist suggested as a way to sort out my thoughts and explore them. Art doesn't mesh well with me since I'm a mesh of abstract and concrete thinking. Writing on the other hand, is a process that works very well for me.

I'm 5 days late sharing this little tid-bit of my last visit with my therapist but I had an urge to post it. Don't know why I do but then again, I don't know where the majority of my urges come from. ^.^

[Julia_in_Pa]

I think a diary is a wonderful way to understand the journey you were chosen to take.

This way eventually after a significant amount has passed you can review what you were feeling and experiencing at the time and gain insight concerning yourself.


Julia

[Jorja]

A diary is an excellent way to to understand you journey and a way get out what you need to get out into the open for yourself to look at. It also is great to go back from time to time and see where you have come from and maybe gain some insight as to where you are going.

[Traci Elizabeth]

I had a diary too when I was a young teenager suffering from an incorrect gender. My parents fond it and I paid hell for it. Moral of the story, keep your diary safe.

[Asako]

Aye, it'll be great to see how things have changed 3 or 6 months from now. Also, it's nice to let my mind wander and have a way to later revisit my thoughts just as they were "penned", so to speak. It should also make things easier for me to communicate to my therapist, like the mirror thing. =)

[LeaP]

Interesting - I just updated mine before seeing this thread. My therapist asked me to keep it when I first described having waking moments and dreams where I was female. A more limited diary than what you are keeping, Asako, but it's been more enlightening than I thought it would. Aside from the vivid ones that have been popping out occasionally (a few described here), it turns out that I have small such moments daily, in ways of which I was not aware and habitually dismissing.

I echo your comments on seeing things you've written in the light of when they were written. It recalls the experience very differently than hazy memories after the fact.

Lea

[Anna Lorree]

I started a journal about 6 months ago, when I decided I was going to seek therapy. I don't make daily entries, but I do write in it several times each week. I find it to be refreshing to read back, and I also find that being able to express myself within its pages allows me to sort of vent things I don't get to talk to real people about. I have found it helpful. And yes, I gave it to my therapist as we started, so that she could get some insight into how I was thinking.

Anna