Well, here’s a very interesting study from New Zealand. Researchers took a group of 49 adults from 64 to 97 years old and got them all to write for 20 minutes each day for three consecutive days. One group had to “write about the most traumatic/upsetting experience in their life, delving into their deepest thoughts, feelings, and emotions about the event, ideally not previously shared with others”, and the other, “write about their daily activities for tomorrow, without mentioning emotions, opinions or beliefs.”
Two weeks later, all participants received a standard 4mm skin biopsy on their inner arm. The resultant wounds were photographed regularly over the following days to determine the rate at which they healed. On the 11th day after the biopsy, the wounds were completely healed on 76.2 percent of those who had done the expressive writing. That was true of only 42.1 percent of those who had written about everyday activities.
Measures of stress levels and depression were the same in both groups, so just how this faster healing resulted from the expressive writing isn’t clear. Fascinating though!
Heroes Not Zombies 
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