![]() People who reported having a highly traumatic experience and who kept the experience a secret showed far more health problems than people who openly talked about their trauma. It was in the early 1980s that professor James Pennebaker stumbled upon a finding that prompted him to explore further. ![]() Writing therapy has proven effective for many different conditions or mental illnesses, including (Lepore & Smyth, 2002 Pennebaker, 1997, 2004): Experience important insights about themselves and their environment that may be difficult to determine without focused writing (Tartakovsky, 2015).Find meaning in their experiences, view things from a new perspective, and see the silver linings in their most stressful or negative experiences (Murray, 2002).In addition to these more concrete benefits, regular therapeutic writing can help the writer: The results showed that writing about IPEs was associated with an enhanced positive mood along with significantly fewer health center visits for illness, compared to controls. In a study by Burton and King (2004), mood measures were taken before and after participants wrote about either an intensely positive experience (IPE) or a neutral topic for 20 minutes each day for three consecutive days.A recent study suggested that expressive writing may even improve immune system functioning, although it may need to be sustained for the health benefits to continue (Murray, 2002).Participants who wrote about the most stressful event of their lives experienced better health evaluations related to their illness (Smyth, Stone, Hurewitz, & Kaell, 1999). Over 100 asthma and rheumatoid arthritis patients showed similar results as above.Participants in a study who wrote about their most traumatic experiences for 15 minutes, four days in a row, experienced better health outcomes up to four months later (Baikie & Wilhelm, 2005). A significant healing effect in individuals who have experienced a traumatic or extremely stressful event.The positive effects of self-expressive writing are: A Collection of Self-Expressive Writing Worksheets.
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