Editor’s Word: In honor of Thanksgiving, we’re re-running this text from March 2020.
Go forward and be thankful for the great issues in your life. Simply don’t suppose {that a} gratitude intervention will assist you really feel much less depressed or anxious.
In a brand new examine, researchers at The Ohio State College analyzed outcomes from 27 separate research that examined the effectiveness of gratitude interventions on lowering signs of tension and melancholy.
The outcomes confirmed that such interventions had “restricted” advantages at greatest.
“For years now, now we have heard within the media and elsewhere about how discovering methods to extend gratitude can assist make us happier and more healthy in so some ways,” stated .
There are two generally really useful gratitude interventions, Cheavens stated. One is the “Three Good Issues” train: On the finish of the day, an individual thinks of three issues that went properly for them that day, then writes them down and displays on them.
One other is a “gratitude go to,” when an individual writes a letter thanking somebody who has made a distinction of their life after which reads the letter to that individual.
The 27 research concerned on this evaluation typically had contributors do one among these workouts or one thing related. The research included 3,675 contributors.
In lots of research, contributors who did the gratitude interventions have been in contrast with individuals who carried out an analogous exercise that was unrelated to gratitude. For instance, as an alternative of writing about what they have been grateful about, a school pupil pattern would possibly write about their class schedule.
The gratitude intervention was not significantly better at relieving nervousness and melancholy than the seemingly unrelated exercise.
“There was a distinction, but it surely was a small distinction,” Cheavens stated. “It might not be one thing you’d suggest as a therapy.”
As a substitute, Cheavens and Cregg suggest individuals pursue remedies which have been proven to be efficient with nervousness and melancholy, reminiscent of cognitive behavioral remedy.
The outcomes recommend that it isn’t useful to inform individuals with signs of melancholy or nervousness to easily be extra grateful for the great issues they’ve, Cheavens stated.
“Primarily based on our outcomes, telling people who find themselves feeling depressed and anxious to be extra grateful seemingly gained’t outcome within the form of reductions in melancholy and nervousness we’d wish to see,” she stated.
“It may be that these form of interventions, on their very own, aren’t highly effective sufficient or that individuals have problem enacting them totally when they’re feeling depressed and anxious.”
The outcomes don’t imply that there are not any advantages to being grateful or to utilizing gratitude interventions, the researchers stated. The truth is, some research present that such interventions are efficient at enhancing relationships.
“It’s good to be extra grateful – it has intrinsic advantage and there’s proof that individuals who have gratitude as a basic trait have a decrease incidence of psychological well being issues and higher relationships,” Cregg stated.
“The issue is once we attempt to flip gratefulness right into a self-help software. Gratitude can’t repair the whole lot.”
