Individuals suffering from depression or anxiety may be able to heal themselves by doing good deeds for others, according to a new study. The researchers found that doing acts of kindness had benefits that were not apparent with two other treatment strategies used to treat sadness or anxiety. Study co-author David Craig, who led the work as part of his PhD dissertation in psychology at The Ohio State University, said that most importantly, the kindness technique task was the only intervention tested that showed people were more attentive to others. Helped me feel more connected. Connection is one of the ingredients of life most strongly associated with well-being. Performing acts of kindness is one of the best ways to foster those connections,” said Craig.
Craig conducted the research with Jennifer Chevens, professor of psychology at Ohio State. Their study was recently published in The Journal of Positive Psychology. The research also revealed why doing acts of kindness worked so well: It helped people take their mind off their depression and anxiety symptoms. This finding suggests that one intuition many people have about people with depression may be wrong, Chevenes said. But these results are the opposite of that,” she said. For severe symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress.
After the introductory session, the participants were divided into three groups. Two groups were assigned techniques often used in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for depression: planning social activities or cognitive reappraisal. The social activities group was instructed to plan social activities for two days in a week. Another group was guided in one of the staples of CBT: cognitive reappraisal. These participants kept records for at least two days each week to help them identify negative thought patterns and modify their thoughts to reduce depression and anxiety.
Members of the third group were instructed to perform three acts of kindness a day for two days a week. Acts of kindness were defined as “acts large or small that benefit others or make others happy, usually at some cost to you in terms of time or resources.” Some acts of kindness that participants later said they had done included baking cookies for friends, offering to give a ride to a friend, and leaving sticky notes for roommates with words of encouragement.
The participants followed their instructions for five weeks, after which they were re-evaluated. The researchers then checked in with the participants after another five weeks to see whether the interventions were still effective. The findings showed that participants in all three groups showed increased life satisfaction and decreased symptoms of depression and anxiety after 10 weeks of the study. Improving satisfaction,” Craig said. “But acts of kindness still showed benefits on both social activities and cognitive reappraisal, making people feel more connected to other people, which is an important part of well-being.” They said.
In addition, the acts of kindness group showed greater improvements than the cognitive reappraisal group for life satisfaction and symptoms of depression and anxiety, the results showed. Chivans said that simply participating in social activities in this study did not improve feelings of social connectedness. Participating in social activities,” she said. Craig said that although the techniques of CBT were used in this study, it is not the same experience as going through CBT. People who go through full treatment are included in this study. Can get better results than people.
But the findings also suggest that even the limited CBT exposures given in this study may be helpful, Chevenes said. “But we found that a relatively simple, one-time training session had a real effect on reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety.” And beyond traditional CBT, acts of kindness may have additional benefits in building social connections, Craig said. Others may go above and beyond other treatments to help people with depression and anxiety recover,” he said.