One thing that has always stopped me form writing a journal was the glaring fact that I was never going to get around to reading older entries, and therefore why was I keeping them around to be stumbled upon. I agree that venting your thoughts is generally helpful but my original point was recently validated when a family member was hospitalized and requested that their journals be destroyed immediately. I did so without peaking, but if I were to keep a journal I would have one rule: Burn after writing.