A paper-only journal would defend against the state, but not against people you live with. A digital journal can be encrypted, but an intelligence agency could potentially gain access (like, them reading your anti-government rants that may involve violence… that sort of stuff).
So… how to defend against both threats?
(Also, I just realized, paper journals cannot really be easily backed up…)
Some people just process these things better by forcing themselves to put them into words. Journals, for some people are not written to be read, but to be written.
I was like they in high school. Wrote out my thoughts. Lose-leaf paper in my binder with me other school stuff, so they didn’t survive more than a few months. But the writing was the point. No-one was ever going to read them, not even me.