![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cosmolinguistNew Scientist says writing in a journal makes you sick!
But come on. Of course all kinds of people can write about their lives, but there are stereotypes and, to a certain degree, I think they're valid. Isn't "social awkwardness" exactly the sort of problem you'd expect to hear about from a person who has a journal? I don't think keeping a journal makes you sick, but I do think qualities that might make someone keep a journal—introspectiveness, a tendency to analyze (or just worry about) things, a lack of real-life people to tell these things to, etc.—might also bring about headaches, sleeplessness, digestive problems, and social awkwardness.
Besides, they're using college (or University, if you speak British) students as test subjects. I can't speak for anyone else, but I don't think there's been a single time in my own life more fraught with headaches, sleeplessness and social awkwardness than my time in college. And digestive problems? My college's cafeteria food was legendarily bad!
See, I know how to debunk "scientific" studies. Yay!
I still catch myself wondering if having a journal is doing me any good.
Now, the only journal experience I can say I've had is this one you're reading now. At various points in my life I'd tried keeping a paper journal but I never liked anything I wrote well enough to keep it for more than a day or, at most, a few monthes. In fact the reason I started with LJ was that I was lamenting my lapse of non-compulsory writing since I started college, and my friend![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
soltice suggested LiveJournal and offered me an invite code (since it was back when you still needed those—ah, those were the days!).
I realize that online journals are much different in form and intent from the old-fashioned kind (and I admittedly am more concerned with the social aspect of it than I am with the quality of my writing), but still, the main purpose of mine is to the old-fashioned one of keeping some record of what's going on. Even if LiveJournal hasn't brought me any huge benefits (though it arguably has), I'd still say that it's been a good experience.
The spokesperson of the study says, "In fact, you’re probably much better off if you don’t write anything at all." I'd have to disagree with that. When I do write about things that upset me, I often find the cliché holds true: writing gets the thoughts out of my head and traps them where I can see them and deal with them more easily. And there are other times that choosing to write happy things (or nothing) instead of sad things has also done me good. The study, in claiming that "diarists continually churn over their misfortunes and so never get over them," doesn't give people any credit for their ability to emphasize one thing or another, to do anything with their diaries except mull over their problems.
So do you think you're endangering your health—your life, really!—by keeping a journal?
Keeping a diary is bad for your health, say UK psychologists. They found that regular diarists were more likely than non-diarists to suffer from headaches, sleeplessness, digestive problems and social awkwardness.Or maybe not. I actually think the article is quite silly (though since I have a journal, and so do all of you reading this, I had to share it). It claims that the reason 94 students who keep diaries are apparently worse off than 41 who don't is that writing is not in fact a cathartic experience that helps people deal with traumatic events, but just a way to rehash everything and never getting on with life at all.
But come on. Of course all kinds of people can write about their lives, but there are stereotypes and, to a certain degree, I think they're valid. Isn't "social awkwardness" exactly the sort of problem you'd expect to hear about from a person who has a journal? I don't think keeping a journal makes you sick, but I do think qualities that might make someone keep a journal—introspectiveness, a tendency to analyze (or just worry about) things, a lack of real-life people to tell these things to, etc.—might also bring about headaches, sleeplessness, digestive problems, and social awkwardness.
Besides, they're using college (or University, if you speak British) students as test subjects. I can't speak for anyone else, but I don't think there's been a single time in my own life more fraught with headaches, sleeplessness and social awkwardness than my time in college. And digestive problems? My college's cafeteria food was legendarily bad!
See, I know how to debunk "scientific" studies. Yay!
I still catch myself wondering if having a journal is doing me any good.
Now, the only journal experience I can say I've had is this one you're reading now. At various points in my life I'd tried keeping a paper journal but I never liked anything I wrote well enough to keep it for more than a day or, at most, a few monthes. In fact the reason I started with LJ was that I was lamenting my lapse of non-compulsory writing since I started college, and my friend
soltice suggested LiveJournal and offered me an invite code (since it was back when you still needed those—ah, those were the days!). I realize that online journals are much different in form and intent from the old-fashioned kind (and I admittedly am more concerned with the social aspect of it than I am with the quality of my writing), but still, the main purpose of mine is to the old-fashioned one of keeping some record of what's going on. Even if LiveJournal hasn't brought me any huge benefits (though it arguably has), I'd still say that it's been a good experience.
The spokesperson of the study says, "In fact, you’re probably much better off if you don’t write anything at all." I'd have to disagree with that. When I do write about things that upset me, I often find the cliché holds true: writing gets the thoughts out of my head and traps them where I can see them and deal with them more easily. And there are other times that choosing to write happy things (or nothing) instead of sad things has also done me good. The study, in claiming that "diarists continually churn over their misfortunes and so never get over them," doesn't give people any credit for their ability to emphasize one thing or another, to do anything with their diaries except mull over their problems.
So do you think you're endangering your health—your life, really!—by keeping a journal?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 08:16 am (UTC)That sounds a bit backward--perhaps people prone to those complaints are for some reason more likely to keep a diary.
You know, you're all alone because you're socially awkward, but you can't sleep because of painful acid reflux--what else are you going to do except write in a journal? And probably you'll end up doing that in dim light, causing headaches from eyestrain, or something.
But I certainly suffer from all four of those things to a certain degree.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 08:31 am (UTC)I must confess that one of the reasons I found this interesting is that all those things reminded me of Andrew.
But really, those have got to be some of the vaguest health problems ever. Everybody could say they've had them at some point, and many people could say they have them oten.
I seem to remember my biology major friend, when she was getting chronic headaches for no reason she could determine, saying it'd hardly be worth going to the doctor because something like half of the people who come in complaining of headaches can't really be helped. She said they're hard to diagnose as a symptom of something because they're sort of your body's way to indicate vaguely that something's wrong.
I feel very predatory about this; maybe it's just because it's so obviously silly that even I can object in an intelligent-sounding way, but really I think it's because New Scientist is sometimes a halfway-decent magazine and I wouldn't expect such silliness of them.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 08:31 am (UTC)(so to speak)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 08:36 am (UTC)I'm doing this to you? I didn't knw it was a quirk specific to me. I thought you were just always like that. :-D
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 08:39 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 08:40 am (UTC)(No, it's not just for this. The waffle thing helped too. And the general fact that I enjoy all the things you say. I just got around to pointing it out now.)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 08:45 am (UTC)Please remember her in your prayers.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 03:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-10 03:56 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 08:30 am (UTC)So those people are full of shit.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 08:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 08:45 am (UTC)I have been way too long without interpersonal contact -_-
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 08:58 am (UTC)Boo for lack of interpersonal contact. And bank statements. No good ever comes from those.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 09:18 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 02:06 pm (UTC)Don't they know that journals rawk? They're just jealous is all, because we won't 'friend' them.
Date: 2004-09-09 08:50 am (UTC)Plus I'd like to point out that this theory was probably first published in a psychology journal. Hah! Case closed, science fuckers!
'is all' is such a great way to end a clause
Date: 2004-09-09 08:56 am (UTC)Also, I still have to go somewhere else to pee. Someone should fix that.
Re: 'is all' is such a great way to end a clause
Date: 2004-09-09 09:11 am (UTC)Try it! You'll really really like it, I swear!
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 09:49 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 09:54 am (UTC)Did I mention typical?
Date: 2004-09-09 11:23 am (UTC)Re: Did I mention typical?
Date: 2004-09-09 11:29 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 11:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 11:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 11:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 02:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 10:02 am (UTC)And I never get headaches. Any stress I have must be someone else's fault and I set about figuring out who in my dirty little writings at night, twitching my malajusted glances around the room. I twiddle myself and think of monkeys. Then I plot horrible things for the people who have caused me stress.
This is all because of my journal, I am sure. ;)
What a bunch of wankers. If you go ask college students ANYTHING they'll list their symptoms as headache (hangover) stress (academics) and social awkwardness (how do I talk to someone I want to have sex with so badly?)
yes, yes, the horrors of self reflection. I'll stay here happy with all you digestively challenge socially awkward migraine ridden journalists. I kind of like the company.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 02:03 pm (UTC)You have a great method for dealing with stress, as well.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 11:09 am (UTC)This study seems to fall into the classic trap of correlation vs. causality. It does not follow that because two behaviors—such as journal-writing and social awkwardness—appear in the same portion of the population, those one caused the other.
If such a study were to have any significant logical weight, it would be necessary to start with a group of people of uniform psychological health (even whether such a state exists is debatable), and then introduce journal-writing to half of the group and keep the rest as a control. Then, it would be necessary to subject the whole group to identical life experiences (which is clearly impossible).
Hence, it would be a greater folly to place confidence in the results of this study than it would be to start keeping a journal.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 02:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 11:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 11:29 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 11:36 am (UTC)Hey!
Date: 2004-09-09 11:38 am (UTC)Re: Hey!
Date: 2004-09-09 11:50 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 02:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 02:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 03:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-10 07:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 11:39 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 02:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 03:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 04:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 04:24 pm (UTC)