Writing helps to heal wounds

Expressing feelings in words helps people recover mental and physical damage, helping to sleep better.

The study was led by Elizabeth Broadbent, a health psychology lecturer at Auckland University, New Zealand who surveyed 49 healthy elderly people, aged 64 to 97. In three days, half of the group was asked to write 20 minutes. every day about the most traumatic event they've ever experienced, they are encouraged to be open and frank when describing their own traumatic experience.

Meanwhile, the other group will write about the plan for the next day, avoiding mentioning emotions, ideas or beliefs. Two weeks later, scientists anesthetized and created a small wound on the arms of all participants. Skin cells are used in another study.

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A week later, Broadbent and colleagues began taking photos of participants' wounds every 3 to 5 days until they fully recovered.

As a result, eleven days after the wound was created, 76% of the group wrote about their mental injury, completely healed; while the number of people recovering completely in another group is only 42%.

"Research shows that writing about personal traumatic events can speed up the recovery of wounds in the elderly , " Broadbent said.

Writing about experiencing pain helps the body develop better sleep. Because, insomnia can reduce the level of growth hormone - an important part of the recovery process.

"We found that people who slept at least 7 hours healed faster than those who slept less. Many people write about their negative experiences saying it helps them get more insight into what was Heidi Kosuwanez, co-researcher at the University of Auckland, said that this could be more positive and positive, which could reduce the level of events that disturbed them and improved sleep .

In addition, writing can help the body by reducing stress hormones, hormones that interfere with the chemicals needed to heal wounds.

This is not the first time scientists have discovered an interesting connection between mental state and physical health in writing. In the previous study, emotional expression writing helped HIV-infected patients reduce viral load and increase the level of anti-virus immune cells.

However, writing about negative emotions is not useful for everyone. In the study last month, when some people wrote about their worst injuries, their worries actually increased. Although for those who are emotionally open, show a decrease in anxiety levels. That proves that different people will have different ways to deal with the traumatic event.

Writing can be an effective escape for those who like to be open and express their emotions, helping them recover both physically and mentally. On the other hand, forcing others to express emotions when they do not want to increase the risk of PTSD (anxiety disorder).