Diaries... who keeps them and why?

I wasn't even conscious that I was doing it that way until recently, but it sort of makes sense to me. Much of what I write tends to be working out ideas, problems, etc., and it is somehow easier for me to do that when I step outside myself. Writing "You ought to ______" seems more decisive and constructive to me than "I ought to _______".

It's like the Ego speaking to the Id.

Or vice versa. Maybe both.






This could be very confusing for somebody with a split personality. (Or maybe one would just order and the other would just obey?)

Ehh... you get used to it. Or at least one of the personalities gets used to it. Two out of my three personalities seem to agree on this point, anyway, and hey--2 outta 3 ain't bad.

Two out of three's a goddamned mandate, woman. Man. Woe-man?

Would that I had such a majority.

[size=7]Even a plurality would be nice.[/size]

I haven't kept a diary in years - a decade probably. And, before that it was only when I was under intense emotional distress, usually involving boys/men.

I did try to keep travel journals - or I intended to every time I did travel. I didn't keep them up usually.

At the moment I am keeping notes on my medicine taking. When I get sick, I get befuddled and if I have to take meds (antibiotics, cold/flu combo medications), I have to write down when I take them.

What a good patient you are.






My brother-in-law keeps a travel journal. Mostly just stuff he thought of in -- wherever, Jamaica, a barge in France, out on SF bay -- and thought was funny. Not a bad travel activity, if you require travel activities, I supopse.

I keep track of where I went which day. Mostly to help make sense of all the photos I sort through upon my return.

Pdawg - speaking of patients, your expertise is needed on a thread of mine. I'll bump it up - about viruses and such.

Back in 1994, I started a medical diary for myself after I had a health crisis. I had a major internal bleed, eventually needing 6 units of blood to fix.

This continued to come in handy, because in the year following, I had been diagnosed with non-Hodgin's lymphoma which required radiation treatments.

In all the time, right to the present, I have continued with this book to keep track of what has happened at subsequent appointments, advice from doctors on various things, tests I've had, medications taken. It has become invaluable to be able to look back 5 or 10 years and give medical answers to questions put to me about my health.

I have my mother to thank for getting me started with this, as she had been doing it for some time, too.

It's probably a better record at this point than your medical files.

Well, it's nice to be on the same page as my family doctor when I have my annual check-ups. Fortunately, my records aren't too scattered, but if I go to someone new, it comes in handy to get them up to speed in a hurry with accurate info.