Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21900202
Love letters and kindness may improve mental
health
It's not the kind of thing you normally write to a complete stranger.
But after graduating from college and moving to New York City, Hannah
Brencher was feeling anxious and depressed. She found herself not wanting to be
around other people and "just really unravelling".
Then she started writing love letters to strangers and leaving them all over
the city. The first letter she left on a train simply addressed: "If you find
this letter then it's for you."
Since then she has left letters in libraries and cafes, and even hidden them
around the United Nations building.
"What I noticed was that my sadness and loneliness got backburnered," she told
the BBC. "I found something that allowed me to take the focus off of myself."
Unexpected kindness
Hannah and her More Love
Letters campaign are part of a growing number of organisations shouting
about the beneficial effects of random acts of kindness for givers as well as
receivers.
It might sound a bit like new-age nonsense to some people, but new research
suggests being kind might actually be good for your mental health.
A study published in the journal Emotion reports that performing acts of
kindness may help people with social anxiety to feel more positive.
Dr Lynn Alden and Dr Jennifer Trew, from the University of British Columbia,
asked volunteers with high levels of social anxiety to commit multiple acts of
kindness on two days a week over a four-week period.
"Sometimes people would give a small gift to somebody, or picking somebody up
from work, visiting sick people, thanking a bus driver. They were actually
fairly small acts," explained Dr Alden.
They were small acts perhaps, but ones which had a much bigger impact.
Challenging beliefs
More standard treatment for social anxiety disorder is cognitive behavioural
therapy (CBT) adapted specifically for people who fear they will do or say
something embarrassing in a social situation.
As part of this therapy patients are encouraged to face
their fears about social contact, by putting themselves into a situation they
would normally avoid or initiating conversation with new people.
In Dr Alden's experiment a comparison group of anxious volunteers were asked
to perform small "belief-challenging" tasks similar to these therapeutic
ones.
Just like the kind acts group, this group were also increasing their levels
of social contact, engaging in unfamiliar behaviour, and paying attention to
others' responses; all things which have been suggested to be important
components in overcoming social anxiety.
At the end of the four weeks, participants in the kind acts group avoided
social situations less and also reported increased relationship satisfaction.
Performing kind acts appeared to have a bigger effect than CBT-like behaviour
tasks.
Dr Nick Grey, consultant clinical psychologist and
clinic director at the Centre for Anxiety Disorders and Trauma in London, was
initially wary of the idea that performing kind acts might have therapeutic
value for patients with anxiety disorders.
"I hadn't seen the paper and I was sceptical from the title to be honest. But
it's a good paper and comes from a well-respected team.
"I don't think that's ever going to be a therapy in and of itself, but it
could well be the kind of activity that could be integrated as part of a broader
treatment."
Dr Alden suggests that acts of kindness might be an initial step in a longer
therapeutic pathway.
"Engaging in kind acts may help the person to get out and encounter other
people and then we can use other techniques to help the person change their
beliefs about themselves."
But she urges caution about performing acts of kindness chosen by someone
else or just to impress others.
"I think it has be done in such a way that the individual has a sense of
autonomy. They are performing the act because they want to and not because it's
required by the group."
Questions,
1. Do you support the article? Why? Have you seen any actions like this?
2. Have you ever wrote a love letter to someone you love?
How did they act when they received it from you?
3. What if you receive a love letter from a stranger, how do you feel?
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