Education

Write your blues away

Aruna Sankaranarayanan

Psychologists suggest that writing about life experiences can have cathartic effects and promote well-being.

Each day, your anxiety ratchets up a few notches as you await your exam results. Being one of the few who were not recruited during campus placements, your morale is at an all-time-low. Over the past few weeks, you have been having frequent skirmishes with your parents who are equally worried about your future. You try and keep your cool, but, sometimes, life can be overwhelming, and stress can take a toll on your physical and mental well-being.

But what can you do when circumstances are beyond your control? Talking with your parents and peers only seems to stress you out further. You do not want to present a sour face to your friends who are doing well, and your parents are too agitated themselves to counsel you. So, how do you deal with the gnawing tension that is simmering within you? The answer is so simple that it almost seems nonsensical — write about your problems. Yes, you read it right. Research by psychologists suggests that writing about life experiences can have cathartic effects and can promote well-being. Sounds far-fetched? Read on.

Words can heal

Psychologist James Pennebaker has been investigating the therapeutic power of writing for over two decades. In a 1997 article in Psychological Science, where he provides an overall review of various studies, he claims that individuals who pen down their thoughts about emotional experiences, show “significant physical and mental health improvements.” Most studies follow a basic paradigm where individuals are asked to write about a given topic for 15 to 30 minutes for three to five consecutive days. Those who write about emotional events require fewer visits to the doctor than they did prior to the writing exercise; this effect was found to last for up to six months to a year in different studies. By contrast, a control group that writes about superficial topics does not show similar gains in health. Likewise, writing about upsetting events, while initially distressing, promotes well-being in the long term. Interestingly, students who were in the emotional writing group got better grades in the months right after the study.

The body responds

In another overview of expressive writing studies, published in 2005 in Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, authors Karen Baike and Kay Wilhelm list specific health benefits like better lung and liver function, lower blood pressure and enhanced immune functioning. Other benefits involve less absenteeism from work, enhanced performance in sports and better working memory, which refers to the amount of information a person can hold in his or her mind so that it can be manipulated if required.

In order for expressive writing to have positive outcomes, you must ensure that what you write remains confidential as you do not want to be judged by it. Further, do not worry about the technical aspects of writing like spelling, grammar and punctuation. What is important is that you process your deepest feelings and thoughts about emotional issues that have impacted you.

Impact

While all of the above studies used a similar writing paradigm of asking subjects to record their heartfelt and intense responses, there is another form of journalling that is also associated with beneficial outcomes. In a paper published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2003, Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough found that people who maintained a weekly gratitude journal, where they listed five things, either great or small, that they were thankful for, were more optimistic about their life. Further, when participants did this exercise daily, they were more likely to report that they helped another person. In another study, published in the Journal of Writing Research in 2009, Steven Toepfer and Kathleen Walker examined the impact of writing three letters of gratitude over an eight-week period. Participants, who were all college students, were asked to write letters to people who they felt grateful to in a significant way. The researchers found that students who engaged in this exercise experienced greater subjective well-being.

Keep a diary

Now that the evidence has been presented for you, perhaps it is time to make those diary entries and write more ‘thank you’ letters. For the next few weeks, try maintaining a journal where you jot down what you are grateful for. It could be anything from the lofty to the mundane. Or, surprise a family member or close friend with a letter where you voice your heartfelt appreciation. If you feel your well-being improves as a result, it won’t take much to keep up these exercises. However, if you feel that your miseries and misgivings are causing mental mayhem and preventing you from acting in positive ways, don’t hesitate to seek professional help.

Courtesy  http://www.thehindu.com/features/education/write-your-blues-away/article6452823.ece

    (Accessed on 29.9.14)