Putting Stress into Words: The Impact of Writing on Physiological, Absentee, and Self-Reported Emotional Well-Being Measures

Martha E. Francis · James W. Pennebaker

299 citations0/0 files storedAmerican Journal of Health Promotion

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Mental Health via Writing Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Inhibiting or holding back one's thoughts, feelings, or behaviors is associated with long-term stress and disease. Actively confronting upsetting experiences can reduce the negative effects of inhibition. The present study describes a unique approach to aid individuals in dealing with psychological and emotional issues that they must often face. METHODS: Forty-one of the 81 university employees who were participating in a wellness program agreed to participate in the present study. Subjects were randomly assigned to write about either personal traumatic experiences (n = 23) or non-traumatic topics (n = 18) for 20 minutes once a week for four consecutive weeks. RESULTS: Results indicate that individuals who wrote about upsetting personal experiences evidenced significant drops in selected blood measures compared to those who wrote about non-traumatic topics (e.g., for SGOT: 4.0% drop among traumatic topic group versus 13.1% increase among non-traumatic topic group, ANOVA p = .029; for SGPT: 24.5% drop versus 7.7% increase, p = .001). During the month of writing, traumatic topic group subjects evidenced a 28.6% reduction in absentee rates from work relative to the eight months before the experiment compared with a 48.5% increase in absentee rates among non-traumatic topic subjects (p = .04). Subjects low in emotional inhibition evidenced the greatest reductions in absentee rates following personal disclosure compared to those high in emotional inhibition (p = .011). DISCUSSION: The proposed writing strategy offers a unique tool for health promotion practitioners.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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1986Confronting a traumatic event: Toward an understanding of inhibition and disease.1988Disclosure of traumas and immune function: Health implications for psychotherapy.1989Confession, Inhibition, and Disease 1990Accelerating the coping process.1990Self-Concealment: Conceptualization, Measurement, and Health Implications 1983Social support and physical health.

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1996Emotional expression and physical heath: Revising traumatic memories or fostering self-regulation?2004Taking Pen to Hand: Evaluating Theories Underlying the Written Disclosure Paradigm 1999Scientizing and routinizing the assessment of suicidality in outpatient practice.2009Evaluating the validity of computerized content analysis programs for identification of emotional expression in cancer narratives.2004Memories of positive and negative emotional events 2005Written Emotional Expression Produces Health Benefits in Fibromyalgia Patients 2003Stress management through written emotional disclosure improves academic performance among college students with physical symptoms.

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