25 Journal Prompts for When Nothing Is Wrong and You’re Anxious Anyway

Anxiety does not only show up when something is wrong. It also shows up when everything is fine, to check.

These prompts are for the good days it interrupts.

The prompts

Pick one. One prompt answered honestly beats twenty-five answered at speed.

1. Describe a day when everything was fine. What time did the anxiety arrive?
2. What do you worry about when there is nothing to worry about?
3. You are on holiday. What have you found to be anxious about?
4. You felt happy. How long before you became suspicious?
5. “Something is wrong. Unclear what.” When did you last feel that?
6. What good news did you manage to find a problem with?
7. What do you check on when everything is going well?
8. Which worry do you keep in reserve for quiet days?
9. Things are calm. What is your brain doing about it?
10. What compliment have you spent a week disproving?
11. What did you worry about that turned out fine? Start the list.
12. What is one thing your anxiety has been right about? What’s the score?
13. How do you relax? How do you ruin it?
14. Describe a lie-in your brain interrupted.
15. There is no catch. What have you decided the catch is?
16. You finished everything on your list. What happened next?
17. What do you do when a day off has no plan?
18. Which achievement did you enjoy for under a minute?
19. What does “I’m fine” cover on an average Tuesday?
20. When did you last feel calm, and what did you assume was wrong?
21. What is your brain’s response to “you deserve a break”?
22. What would today look like if the worry took the afternoon off?
23. What nice evening did you spend bracing for something?
24. What do you do first with free time: enjoy it or audit it?
25. Which problem did you invent this week? Rate the craftsmanship.

Want somewhere to write the answers?

These come from the same place as Anxiety, My Old Friend: A Journal for Things That Haven’t Happened. Its section “Everything Is Fine. Suspicious.” has six prompts like these with ruled space under each, plus the catch detector. The whole journal is a 58-page printable PDF with 60 prompts and ten activity pages.

These prompts are for writing things down and occasionally laughing at them. They are not treatment or medical advice. If anxiety is making daily life hard, please talk to your doctor or a qualified professional.

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