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Emotional and physical benefits of expressive writing

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Writing about traumatic, stressful or emotional events has been found to result in improvements in both physical and psychological health, in non-clinical and clinical populations. In the expressive writing paradigm, participants are asked to write about such events for 15-20 minutes on 3-5 occasions. Those who do so generally have significantly better physical and psychological outcomes compared with those who write about neutral topics. Here we present an overview of the expressive writing paradigm, outline populations for which it has been found to be beneficial and discuss possible mechanisms underlying the observed health benefits. In addition, we suggest how expressive writing can be used as a therapeutic tool for survivors of trauma and in psychiatric settings.
... Si bien los estudios iniciales se centraron en efectos sobre la salud física, investigaciones posteriores han evaluado variables psicológicas como depresión, ansiedad, estrés postraumático y bienestar (Baikie y Wilhelm, 2005). Los resultados indican que la escritura expresiva sobre eventos estresantes o traumáticos está relacionada con mejoría en estas variables. ...
... Reducciones en visitas médicas, mejor funcionamiento inmunológico y disminución de síntomas somáticos son algunos de los principales efectos reportados en la literatura (Baikie y Wilhelm, 2005;Rodríguez y Bayona, 2010;Izarri, 2018). Se requieren más estudios que exploren los mecanismos detrás de estos resultados positivos sobre la salud física. ...
... Los resultados de esta revisión sugieren que la escritura expresiva sobre eventos traumáticos o estresantes tiene efectos positivos en salud mental, lo cual es consistente con estudios previos en inglés que encontraron mejorías en ansiedad, depresión, estrés postraumático y bienestar (Baikie y Wilhelm, 2005;Frattaroli, 2006). Si bien los tamaños del efecto identificados tienden a ser pequeños o moderados, son clínicamente significativos considerando la brevedad y sencillez de implementación de la escritura expresiva. ...
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La escritura expresiva o escritura para sanar ha resurgido en las últimas décadas como herramienta terapéutica dada su relación con beneficios en salud mental y física. Esta revisión sistemática sintetiza evidencia sobre sus efectos en indicadores psicológicos. La búsqueda bibliográfica identificó 50 estudios cuantitativos y cualitativos en español publicados en los últimos 10 años sobre escritura expresiva y variables como ansiedad, depresión, estrés postraumático y bienestar. Los estudios experimentales sugieren que escribir sobre experiencias traumáticas o estresantes, en comparación con temas neutros, reduce síntomas de ansiedad y depresión con un efecto pequeño a moderado. Asimismo, disminuye síntomas de estrés postraumático y mejora variables positivas como bienestar y autoeficacia. Algunos estudios también señalan efectos físicos como menos visitas médicas y mejor funcionamiento inmune. Los estudios cualitativos indican que la escritura facilita la expresión emocional, promueve la resignificación de experiencias difíciles y posibilita ganar claridad y perspectiva. Se concluye que la escritura expresiva tiene impactos positivos en salud mental y puede implementarse tanto en contextos clínicos como educativos. Se requieren más estudios en español que profundicen en sus aplicaciones y procesos subjetivos en distintas poblaciones.
... Such findings are in line with the therapeutic literature on journaling and expressive writing. Researchers have consistently found that participants report improvements in physical and mental health with short periods devoted to writing about their experiences [53][54][55][56]. While selecting multiple choice options on a mobile app is a long way from expressive writing, journaling may take many forms and for some can be as simple as tracking experiences on a score card [57]. ...
... Mechanistically then, what is important is that the act provides the participant with a tool for reflection, reinforcement of positive experiences, as well as acceptance of negative experiences [55,58,59]. By helping participants with cognitive processing, organising their experiences and perhaps accepting negative emotions, users received a benefit from the daily documentation of their experiences without having any actual feedback [54,55]. ...
... For instance, participants will be able to skip questions, and automatic signposting is being built into the feature, so participants who flag a particular issue will be provided links to informational resources at the end of the survey. A short term increase of negative feeling has been observed in the journalling literature, but this is typically surpassed with long-term improvements across multiple domains [54]. Our participants also reported that it is important to recognise and accept how you are feeling to Page 14 of 17 Page et al. ...
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... Finally, in this study, we chose not to analyse the written responses by participants in their personal diaries/responses to allow for more honest responses, though future research in life crafting interventions may benefit from this. For example, expressive writing has shown many health benefits (Baikie & Wilhelm, 2005), and this is in part due to the types of words people use, such as a progression in the use of causal (e.g., "because") and insight (e.g., "understand") words (Pennebaker & Seagal, 1999). Therefore, some of the benefits of life crafting-especially the coherent narrative aspect--may, in part, come from the insights gained based on the types of words used. ...
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Life crafting has been suggested as an activity in which people proactively foster meaning in life and satisfy psychological needs, yet, to date, no evidence exists to support these claims. This study aimed to use a mixed-methods approach to test the acceptability and well-being benefits of a fully online and self-guided life crafting intervention for emerging adults. In total, 109 participants signed up for the intervention and provided baseline data; however, only 41 participants completed all five intervention modules and provided complete data. We found that well-being, meaning in life, and the three basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness increased after the life crafting intervention; however, well-being did not reach statistical significance. Based on responses to open-ended questions, participants found the intervention helpful, motivating, and well-structured. The most effective components of the program were exploring personal values, reflecting on meaningful relationships, and clarifying life goals with specific action plans. This pilot study provides initial support for a life crafting intervention. It sheds light on a multidimensional method to help young adults live more meaningfully, warranting larger randomised controlled trials to further evaluate the efficacy.
... Research supports the benefits of writing about traumatic and stressful events in improving both physical and psychological health across clinical and non-clinical populations (16). For example, meta-analyses examining the effectiveness of expressive writing among people coping with cancer have found that it can alleviate physical symptoms (17,18). ...
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