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Welcome to the Journal Prompts for Depression Generator, our hopeful little app for generating anti-depression writing prompts.
To be clear, we’re not therapists and don’t pretend to have the answers for your depression. What we do have are certain journaling ideas for depression – lots of them, that may help you use your journal in a different, highly resourceful way.
They’re based on the Behavioral Activation approaches that many depression sufferers already turn to when they journal: Positive, action-oriented alternatives to feeling bad that can help in reconnecting with the world.
While the prompts aren’t for everybody, and may seem too cheerful for where you’re at, we urge you to give the Journaling Prompts for Depression Generator a whirl, just to see for sure.
The app itself is very simple. All you have to do is click. When you do, you’ll find two kinds of prompts – Gratitude Prompts, and Activity Prompts:
Gratitude Depression Writing Prompts
If you’re unfamiliar with the psychological benefits of gratitude, learning more about it, and doing things to develop your own “gratitude muscle,” is probably well worth your time.
The Journal Prompts for Depression Generator contains hundreds of anti-depression writing prompts designed to exercise that gratitude muscle, by prompting you with questions that ask “what’s great” about the world.
The idea here isn’t to tell you what to journal about or how. It’s to trigger your own grateful thoughts and memories. Ones you can express in whatever way (words, pictures, drawings, poems…) feels right.
In the process, you may find that by turning your attention toward gratitude, and away from depressive thoughts, you begin to feel better – as many journalers already do.
Activity Depression Writing Prompts
Activity Prompts are simple suggestions for things to do and write about. Little things like watching a movie or going to a fair. Sure, you could find the ideas yourself. But when you’re depressed, would you?
The idea is to give you hundreds of activity suggestions that you can either turn into a game (For instance, like a game of “truth or dare”) or use for inspiration.
Either way, after you’ve chosen an activity, the point is to also put your journal to work- planning the experience, writing about it afterward, and sometimes taking it along.
By focusing on activities in this way, your journal becomes not just a tool for thought and reflection, but a tool for getting out and doing things that have the potential to make you feel better.
And a tip: Don’t flip through the prompts too quickly, and try not to dismiss any out of hand.
Because unless you’ve tried crocheting, singing, or rock climbing, or you’ve purposely felt grateful for the sunlight streaming through a room, how will you know those things won’t help you?
And other than depression, what do you really have to lose?
Like the Journal Prompts for Depression Generator? You may also like Anxiety Journal Prompts, Journaling Prompts For Self-Esteem, and a complete list of our mental health prompt generators at Journaling Prompts for Mental Health.