Journal Prompts for Anxiety: 42 Prompts When You’re Overthinking
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Last Updated on June 25, 2023
Feeling overwhelmed and unsure how to ease the anxious thoughts? These journal prompts for anxiety take the guess-work out so you can feel at ease faster!
You know how it goes: one anxious thought creeps into your head, then another…and before you know it, you’re caught in a web of perpetual anxiety and overwhelm. And man is it hard to get back to a state of calm and confidence!
I’ve been there more times than I can count, and before journaling regularly, this pesky routine ALWAYS plagued me.
I would often end up in a state of having no clue what to do and feeling too overwhelmed to take any action to alleviate the anxiety. But once I started using journal prompts for anxiety as one of my go-to coping strategies, things improved!
Journaling really prevents you from drowning in your own thoughts. I can take a step back, look at what’s going on in my head, and identify ways to tackle the issues without getting so flustered like I would when the thoughts stay trapped in my mind.
So if you’re looking to calm your anxious mind, you’ve got to check out these therapeutic journal prompts for anxiety! You’ll feel stress relief faster than you’d think!
This post is all about journal prompts for anxiety.
How does writing journal prompts help with anxiety?
Journaling helps you identify your emotions, fears, triggers, and negative thought patterns. When you identify these aspects, it can help you better understand and manage your anxiety and overwhelm.
For example, if you find something that repeatedly causes you stress, that’s worth taking note of. With practice, you can learn how to cope with that trigger in a healthier way, or find a way to avoid it if possible.
Many people with anxiety are excessive worriers (myself included!) and having so much mental clutter clouding your head space can get overwhelming. By taking those thoughts out of your head and putting them onto paper with journal prompts for anxiety, you can organize the overwhelming thoughts and make better sense of them.
This practice greatly reduces my anxiety, and it’s pretty shocking just how much it helps! Journaling is one of the most effective tools I have in my own toolbox for anxiety, and you should absolutely take advantage of it too!
{RELATED POST: 22 Rewarding Self Care Things To Do When Bored}
Tips on how to journal for anxiety
To make the journal prompts for anxiety in this post the most effective, consider following these steps:
- Have a journal dedicated to mental health or anxiety prompts – I find it useful to have a journal specific to a certain theme. So keep a journal dedicated to things like brain dumping, writing about your anxiety, or other mental health related things you face.
- Make it a regular habit to journal – consistency and discipline is the best way to work something into your routine. And journaling will be most effective for you when done consistently. Set aside even just 10 minutes each night or each morning to reflect on anything that came up during the day that may have provoked your anxiety.
- Keep your journal in an easy-to-grab place – If you know you want to journal each night, keep it on your nightstand! Make it easy and make it accessible, that way it doesn’t feel like something you have to go out of your way for.
- Be honest because no one is reading your journal but you – each time you write, don’t hold back or sugar coat! Be 100% honest and authentic and you will see the best results. This is the only way to truly work through your problems and get to the root of what’s going on.
- Use journal prompts for anxiety – you have prompts located right in this blog post, so use ‘em! This helps alleviate the dilemma of not knowing what to write about when you have relevant anxiety journaling ideas handy!
- Practice brain dumping for anxiety – in addition to guided prompts, brain dumping is a great way to organize your thoughts–especially when you have a lot on your mind. Like I said, get those thoughts out of your head and onto paper!
- Regularly review previous journal entries – you don’t necessarily want to set it and forget it when it comes to journaling. Reflecting on what you’ve written in the last week, month, or year is another way to track the progress you’ve made and identify patterns to work on.
Here are 42 crazy helpful journal prompts for anxiety.
Journal prompts for overthinking
- List everything on your mind (and literally everything you can think of) in bullet-point form
- Write down your top three worries for the week and what you can do to manage or lessen these worries
- Write down a recurring negative thought and reframe it into something more positive (i.e: is there the possibility of a positive outcome?)
- What are three positive affirmations you can tell yourself to ease your overthinking?
- Will your biggest concern right now impact your life in a year from now? Why or why not?
- If you had to rate your current anxiety on a scale of 1-10, where would it be? What made you assign it this rating?
Psst…tracking your anxiety symptoms is super important for monitoring your wellbeing! Grab your (free!) printable anxiety tracker below to check in with yourself regularly!
- Reply to your inner critic’s opinions about your biggest insecurities.
- What are three positive things that happened today? Did they help you feel better?
- Are most of your worries realistic?
- What values are most important to you?
- List the questions that are racing through your head right now and respond with an answer to each one.
- When was the last time you said no to something?
- When was the last time you wish you said no to something?
{RELATED POST: 40 Helpful and Refreshing Gratitude Journal Prompts}
Featured Journal: The Mental Health Journal

Journal prompts for anxiety and depression
- How are you feeling right now? Describe everything in detail.
- Describe a time when you felt fulfilled. What were you doing? What was good in your life at the time?
- When was the last time you did something for yourself?
- What was the most difficult experience you’ve faced and how did you overcome it?
- “If I could make one promise to myself, it would be…”
- What strategies have you tried to help cope with your anxiety and depression? Name them and label them on a scale of 1-10 in terms of how effective they were.
- Name 3 things that scare you the most in life and why.
- What lessons can you take from a time where you experienced failure?
- Write down at least 10 activities you can do to improve your self-care.
- What is it that you need to let go of right now? Why are you holding onto it?
- Imagine yourself living in a world where you are free from anxiety and depression. Detail the things that come along with it.
- Write down 3 things you can do over the course of the next month to manage your anxiety and depression
- Do you go to therapy? Name the most positive thing that has come out of it.
Is anxiety a regular struggle for you? Or just want to get better at tackling the everyday stressors we all face? Talking to an online therapist can really help you out. I always recommend Online Therapy because it’s a comprehensive, effective online therapy toolkit based on CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy–the leading standard in psychotherapy) at an affordable monthly cost.
- Have you had any bad dreams lately? Write down the details (or keep a dream journal)
- Name one go-to positive affirmation you can speak or think when your anxiety flares up.
- What is something you can do first thing in the morning to start your day off with less anxiety?
- What is a bad habit you can stop doing that makes your anxiety worse?
GRAB YOUR FREE PRINTABLE ANXIETY TRACKER HERE.
{RELATED POST: 30 Day Mental Cleanse Challenge That Will Boost Your Wellness}
Journal prompts for social anxiety
- What is your biggest social anxiety trigger?
- What about social interactions is the hardest for you?
- What can you say or do for yourself in a moment of social anxiety to make it a little more manageable?
- When was the last time you pushed yourself out of your comfort zone with your social anxiety? How did it go? Name any physical sensations or emotions that went along with it.
- Describe a time where pushing through your social anxiety rewarded you with something meaningful.
- How has your social anxiety progressed over the years? Worse? Better? Why do you think it’s progressed in this way?
- How did social anxiety affect you when you were in school?
- How has social anxiety affected you in the workforce?
- Describe your biggest challenge with making and maintaining new friends
- Describe your biggest success with making a new friend
- Name your best social strength and why you’re proud of it
- When did your social anxiety first develop? Can you recall your first memory of experiencing it?
Can writing a journal help with anxiety?
Yes, absolutely! Journaling is an insanely impactful self care activity when you’re feeling anxious. There are so many benefits of using journal prompts for anxiety, including:
- Increased feelings of wellbeing
- Stops obsessive thinking of a traumatic event
- Clearer mind
- Greater sense of calm
- Creates awareness of emotions and thoughts
- Useful for emotion regulation
- Helps you feel more comfortable with opening up
- Helps you prioritize problems, fears, and concerns
- Manages symptom tracking
- You can recognize triggers and how to overcome them
- Helps to identify negative thoughts and behaviors
- Is a great opportunity for positive self talk
What should I journal about for anxiety?
You can approach journaling for anxiety in a variety of ways. You can cover things like:
- Keeping track of your anxiety symptoms
- Positive reframing of thoughts
- Reflecting on coping methods
- Considering things that help and harm your anxiety
- Going to your “happy place”
- Detailing positive memories
- Preparing for upcoming stressful events
- Coping with past traumas
- Recalling your strengths
There you have it, 42 go-to journal prompts for anxiety to stop overthinking in its tracks! Practicing these journal prompts regularly will do wonders for checking in on yourself and finding better ways to cope with your symptoms.
It doesn’t have to take a lot–just 10 minutes of your time each day and you’ll be on your way to getting your anxiety in check!
I know firsthand how troubling anxiety can be and have struggled with it for most of my life. Any tool I can use to make it a little better is valuable, and journaling absolutely does the trick! I hope these prompts can help you find your peace.
Take care.
DON’T FORGET TO GRAB YOUR FREEEEEE PRINTABLE ANXIETY TRACKER BELOW!
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LIKE THESE JOURNAL PROMPTS FOR ANXIETY? PIN THEM FOR LATER!
