People suffering from symptoms of depression or anxiety can heal themselves by doing good deeds for others. This was reported by the press service of Ohio State University.
The study included 122 people from Ohio who had moderate to severe symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. After the orientation session, the participants were divided into three groups. Two groups were given methods commonly used in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for depression: social activity planning or cognitive reassessment.
The first group was tasked with planning social activities two days a week. The other group was trained in cognitive reassessment, one of the core elements of CBT. These participants recorded
This helped them identify negative thought patterns and reframe their thoughts in ways that reduced depression and anxiety.
Members of the third group were asked to do three acts of kindness a day, two days a week. Acts of kindness have been defined as “acts large or small that benefit or make others happy, often at the expense of the participant’s time or resources in the experiment.”
Some of the acts of kindness that participants described later were baking cookies for their friends, offering a car to a friend, and leaving encouraging stickers to their roommates. Participants followed these instructions for five weeks, after which their condition was studied and another study was conducted five weeks after treatment was discontinued.
Participants in all three groups appeared to have increased life satisfaction and reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety 10 weeks after the experiment.
“These results are encouraging because they show that all three interventions studied are effective at reducing symptoms of depression and increasing satisfaction,” the authors write. Also, doing good deeds seemed to manage depression better than cognitive reappraisal. Maybe it’s because doing good work makes people feel needed and connected with other people.