By Chris Woolston, M.S.

Researchers have found that people who write about their deepest thoughts and feelings surrounding upsetting events have stronger immunity and visit their doctors half as often as those who write only about minor events. Exciting research in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that writing about a stressful experience reduces physical symptoms in patients with chronic illnesses. One study of 112 patients with arthritis or asthma showed amazing results.

Even psychologists get the blues. As James Pennebaker’s marriage started to flounder, the noted therapist sunk into a massive depression. After a month of misery, he turned to a trusted source of comfort: his typewriter. Each afternoon, he pounded out his thoughts about his failing marriage and other crucial issues, from sex to death. He didn’t realize it at the time, but the words on those pages would turn his life around.

As Pennebaker notes in his book Opening Up (Guilford Press, 1997), his typewriter quickly led him out of depression. “For the first time in years — perhaps ever — I had a sense of meaning and direction,” he writes.Pennebaker’s experience inspired him to devote much of his career to studying the therapeutic value of writing. Over the years, he and many other researchers have found that writing consistently makes people feel happier and healthier. In fact, recent research suggests it may even help ease the symptoms of serious non-psychiatric diseases.