How good deeds can help deal with anxiety

Anxiety and depression affect not only our general well-being, emotional and physical, but also our work and personal lives. Fortunately, there are effective ways to deal with these conditions. A new study offers another is to do random acts of kindness.

How Psychologists Have Linked Good Deeds to Anxiety Levels

For the study, the authors selected people with an average level of depression and anxiety. Each participant was randomly assigned two days a week to complete one of three tasks for five weeks:

1. Do three random good deeds. They meant actions that take some amount of time and effort and benefit others or make them happy. The participants in the experiment ended up showing kindness towards both acquaintances and strangers. people: paid for someone else's order at a coffee shop, baked cookies for friends, helped a neighbor clean up plot.
2. Plan social activities, that is, deliberately set aside time to meet other people in order to have fun.
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3. Write down your thoughts using the method of cognitive reappraisal, which is used in cognitive behavioral therapy. It suggests that we need to notice and fix disturbing or distorted thoughts and learn to make them less problematic.

Prior to the start of the experiment, each week while it was running, and five weeks after it ended, participants reported their levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. They also reported positive and negative emotions, feelings of social support, and life satisfaction. In addition, they were asked to rate their degree of self-absorption, that is, how focused they are on themselves when they are alone, and how embarrassed they are by what others think of them when they are in public.

The results showed that at the end of the experiment, all participants were less likely to experience negative emotions, feel less depressed and anxious, and more satisfied with life. However, the group that did random acts of kindness had the lowest rates of depression and anxiety and the highest scores of life satisfaction. And although kindness and collective activity increased the feeling of social support, the participants in this group made even more impressive progress. The effect persisted for up to five weeks.

Study co-author Jennifer Chivens said she was surprised by the results of the experiment. They expected the group that recorded thoughts to have the best results, she said, because it's a proven and reliable way to deal with symptoms of depression and anxiety. However, the group that did good deeds did just as well or even better. In addition, participants from it made new social connectionswhich was not the case in other groups.

How kindness helps with anxiety

The authors of the experiment do not have a clear answer to the question why good deeds help to cope with mental health problems. In a study, they found that kindness makes a person feel less shy around other people, and this reduces depression and anxiety. According to Chivens, prosocial behavior, when we consciously do something for others, weakens obsession on ourselves, which is characteristic of us in social interaction.

Both the acts of kindness and the recording of thoughts ultimately increased the positive emotions of the participants in the experiment. But if the first practice brought great benefits almost immediately, then the second, only after a while. This may explain why fewer participants ended up abandoning good deeds than writing thoughts. We quickly learn to do something nice for others, but we need more time to learn perceive your thoughts in a different way and evaluate how their negative coloring corresponds to reality.

However, it may not be easy to convince people suffering from depression and anxiety to do good deeds. Because they already feel overwhelmed, overwhelmed and devoid of motivation to do anything else. However, according to Chivens, it turned out to be not such a difficult task. Moreover, the participants in the experiment, who were engaged in good deeds, understood to some extent faster than others what was required of them.

Can acts of kindness cure anxiety and depression?

In the future, the study authors want to work with people with more severe episodes of depression and anxiety. They are interested in understanding whether what acts of kindness, and for whom, make a difference in relieving symptoms.

It is important to add that experts in no way advise abandoning cognitive behavioral therapy and other therapies in favor of good deeds. Work with psychotherapist has been showing consistently good results in the fight against depression and anxiety for a long time.

However, if such an approach helps to improve social connections and reduce symptoms of mental disorders, acts of kindness may be an effective adjunct to standard treatment. Even for those of us who occasionally experience depressive and anxious thoughts, shifting our focus from our own experiences to helping others will also be beneficial. Kindness will not only cheer you up, but it will also help you feel connected to other people.