Writing down worries and fears helps to deal with them

People should write down their fears, problems and worries more often
If you often suffer from stress, anxiety and worry, just write down your problems and feelings. Researchers have now found that so-called expressive writing can help overcome fears and worries, as well as facilitate the resolution of upcoming stressful tasks.

Michigan State University researchers have found in their current research that writing down thoughts, feelings, and fears helps combat them and, in addition, facilitates the resolution of future tasks. The physicians published the results of their study in the journal "Psychophysiology".

Writing down concerns and difficulties about upcoming tasks helps solve challenging tasks. (Picture: frozen food - fotolia)

You can more effectively solve tasks by writing down task-related problems
For example, when an important and stressful task comes to you at work, you should write down previously existing worries and fears. The technology could help you more effectively tackle the task ahead. That's what Michigan State University researchers came up with when measuring brain activity.

Neural evidence confirms the results
For the first time, the current research found neural evidence of the benefits of expressive writing on concerns and problems, said author Hans Schroder, a Ph.D. student in psychology and a clinical intern at McLean Hospital, an internationally recognized Harvard Medical School.

Worries and problems claim important cognitive resources
If you are worried, it takes up so-called cognitive resources. People who have to deal with concerns are always in a kind of multitasking mode when they want to complete a task. They perform their task, but at the same time worry and try to suppress it. "Our results show that expressive writing spills those concerns out of your head, releasing cognitive resources that help them complete their tasks more effectively," Schroder says in a Michigan State University press release.

The subjects consisted of students with chronic fears
For the study, college students with chronic anxiety were recruited, previously identified through a validated screening procedure, the researchers explain. The participants had to take a test on a computer, which determined their accuracy and their response times. About half of the subjects previously wrote down their deepest thoughts and feelings about the task ahead. They had a total of eight minutes for this. The other half of the participants presented the control group and wrote during this time about their activities of the previous day.

Expressive writing helps perform tasks more effectively
The results of the study showed that both groups completed the tasks at approximately the same speed and with the same accuracy. However, the participants in the expressive writing group performed the task more efficiently. They used less brain resources in the task.

Expressive writing also helps with the management of trauma
While previous research has shown that expressive writing can help individuals cope with past traumas or stressful events, the current research found that the same technique helps people to prepare for stressful tasks in the future, the experts explain. Expressive writing takes less of a mental burden when it comes to solving demanding tasks. This technique allows sufferers to tackle the task with a cooler head, so to speak, add the physicians. (As)