The oldest and most widely practiced form of self-help through writing is that of keeping a personal journal or diary in which the writer records their thoughts and feelings. One individual benefit is that the act of writing puts a powerful brake on the torment of endlessly repeating troubled thoughts to which those in recovery are prone. Kathleen Adams states that through the act of journal writing, the writer is also able to “literally read his or her own mind,” and thus, “to perceive experiences more clearly resulting in the relief of tension, anxiety and quelling the urge to use.”