The Pennebaker Journaling Method
I really like journaling. The act of writing down my thoughts helps me empty my head, relax and have a clearer view of my current plans and aspirations.
In my journaling journey, I’ve found that the internet is a great tool for finding interesting journaling methods, each oriented towards a different goal. Like bullet journaling for managing your tasks and projects, or commonplace books for keeping track of things you’ve learned.
But today I want to share with you a journaling method that is not so popular but definitely deserves more attention. This method is supported by research to have a great impact in balancing your emotional and mental health. All the resources and bibliography for this post can be found below.
This post is part of a three-post series on journaling that I will be doing on journaling.
A quick disclaimer before I start, I am not a health professional. I am just a pre-med student really interested in psychology, sharing some things on the internet. Please consult a health professional if you’re suffering from PTSD, depression, anxiety or any of the things we are going to talk about.
How to do it
The Pennebaker journaling method was developed by the American psychologist and James Pennebaker and is one of the most well-documented journaling methods in psychology literature there is.
It has been show to promote the reduction of post-traumatic stress symptoms and depression in studies done with veterans, as well as an improvement of immune system functionality and a consequent decrease in general health problems. Dr. Andrew Huberman has a full video on the Pennebaker method which I really recommend watching, and can be found together with the other sources.
The practice goes as follows:
- Sit down in a private place with no distractions or interruptions;
- Write for a period of 15–20 minutes;
- Write about a traumatic or emotional experience that is not too recent, to avoid negative rumination;
- Write freely and without censoring about any facts, feelings, or thoughts that arise regarding the event;
- Be as true as you can about what happened, what you felt, and what you think about it;
- Repeat 2–4 times. You can do it in consecutive days or in the span of a month.
This journaling method can be done with the assistance of a therapist, but still keeps most of the strength of its effects without the presence of one, which is an important note for those who for one reason or another can’t provide themselves with a therapist.
How it works
But how does the Pennebaker method work? How does it affect your stress levels and immune response? When you experience a traumatic event, like, for example, a car crash, you have to react very quickly, giving little time for your rational mind to make a proper assessment of the situation. This physically corresponds to a decrease in the levels of activity of your neocortex, responsible for your conscious thoughts, and an increase in the activity of your limbic system, responsible for emotional responses and your fight-flight-freeze mechanisms.
Now, your brain is an incredibly intelligent machine. The memory of what happened during the event and how you reacted will be kept in order to help you prevent such a situation and react more quickly if it ever were to happen again. The problem is that sometimes, this adaptive system can go beyond what is necessary to protect your life and create trauma that will lead to higher levels of stress and the possibility of developing problems such as PTSD, chronic anxiety or depression. In the car crash example, a person could start feeling anxious anytime they are near a car.
Even worse, in some situations where trauma was caused within a relationship, the person’s concept of self and self-worth may be at stake. For example, if someone was a victim of violence from an abusive partner, the way that emotionally interpreted their role during that event can stay stuck in their minds, impacting the way they see themselves after the situation has passed.
This is where the Pennebaker method comes into play. The act of reminiscing and writing about a traumatic event in a context of safety, openness, and vulnerability allows for a reinterpretation of what really happened, the role the person played, and how this should shape their view of themselves and of the world. This happens through three main mechanisms:
First, the person is making a conscious effort to rationally understand what was going on, engaging more of their neocortex and less of their limbic system at each retelling of the story. Second, the stress released by recalling the memory will provoke an increase in neuroplasticity, which is the ability of your brain to physically adapt and change its connections when learning something. It’s like metal, which, when exposed to the right levels of heat, becomes pliable and can then be more easily shaped. Third, the space between sessions allows the brain to consolidate these new changes during sleep and make them long-lasting.
Thus, the Pennebaker journaling method is essentially helping you replace that initial very stressing and emotionally charged memory by a more neutral and rationally coherent one that will still function to help you avoid or react to similar situations in the future. Basically, it’s like your brain had very quickly set up a very loud and sensitive emergency alarm at the moment of the traumatic event, and by reassessing what happened, you’re able to tune the alarm in a way that it still works, but without disrupting your daily life.
This helps you decrease your overall levels of chronic stress and cortisol, and thus, decrease the levels of inflammation throughout your body. This decrease in inflammation then alleviates symptoms of many types of immune diseases such as asthma, arthritis, or cystic fibrosis. It also helps with the symptoms of other stress-related problems, such as poor sleep and pain perception.
Warnings
There are two important things to keep in mind to prevent harm from happening to oneself or to others when practicing this method. The first is that a presence of overwhelming negative feelings and ruminating thoughts may suggest that the memory is still too fresh or too emotionally charged to be dealt with right now. It is best to stop, do something soothing, wait a while and seek professional attention before trying to do the method again. Stress, sadness, anger and negative feelings are normal when writing about traumatic memories, but they shouldn’t cause despair or start affecting your daily life.
Also, be very careful if you want to share your writings with someone else, since sharing about trauma can be very stressful for the person you’re sharing with, and their negative reactions can make you resent or feel ashamed for trying to reevaluate your traumatic experiences.
In conclusion, the Pennebaker method is a short and resource-cheap journaling system that can have a great impact in your mental health and well-being. It costs basically nothing except a little bit of your time, while having little negative effects since you can stop at any time. I really recommend trying it out, or sharing it with someone who might need.
Bibliography
“Therapeutic Journaling,” n.d.