As a somewhat crisis-prone personality with my autism, OCD and panic attacks, I used to write a lot more crisis journals years ago. Now, I don't write nearly as many. Why do I write them? For one, they are major developments in my life. But why else? It's not like I expect someone reading them will know what to say. I think to some extent the act of writing them is cathartic, because discussing feelings helps me understand them better and figure more things out.

The thing is, the reason I write less of them now than I used to, is not just that I have developed better coping skills over the years, but that I don't always think writing (or publishing) them is a good idea - that they have the potential to actually do more harm than good. Even if I decide to post them, I may decide to remove them later if I believe they have finished serving their purpose or are counterproductive to leave lying around.

So, if writing the journal entries itself is the most therapeutic part of it, then why bother publishing them? People do therapeutic writing in private all the time. But perhaps that's not enough for someone like me. The act of publishing my journals is also a step of admitting that I have a problem that I don't fully know how to solve, and it helps me commit that much more to finding a solution. Comments from friends are welcome, though I know ultimately that it's my responsibility to fix it however I can.