Want To Feel Less Depressed? Try an Act of Kindness.

Not to downplay or invalidate your feelings, but sometimes the best thing you can do to make yourself feel better is to do a good deed for someone else—at least that’s what this new study says. 

The study, led by researchers from the Ohio State University and published in the Journal of Positive Psychology, found that performing acts of kindness helps people alleviate symptoms of anxiety and depression. According to their report, acts of kindness are more effective than some established cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) techniques at boosting mental well-being.

One important measure of mental well-being is social connection, or what the study defined as an “internal sense of belonging and interpersonal closeness with other individuals and groups.” Social connection is impaired in people who struggle with anxiety and depression. While CBT approaches like attending social gatherings and recording and analyzing thoughts can help with symptoms of anxiety and depression, like feelings of sadness, irritability, and guilt, the researchers said that they are inadequate at improving social connectedness.

Doing acts of kindness, on the other hand, is a “promising candidate for improving social connection and related dimensions of well-being.” Past studies have demonstrated this, but few have focused on the effects of acts of kindness on people who struggle with anxiety and depression.

The researchers recruited 122 adults with elevated symptoms of anxiety, depression, or both, and randomly assigned each of these participants to one of three groups. Each group was asked to perform one of three activities for five weeks.

One group was instructed to plan social activities for two days out of each week. Social activities were defined as “big or small activities you intentionally plan with other people for the purpose of enjoyment.” Another group was instructed to complete thought records for at least two days each week. Psychologists use thought records to help people identify, evaluate, and modify negative thought patterns. Both planning social activities and completing thought records are techniques used in CBT to help anxiety and depression. 

The third group was instructed to perform three acts of kindness each day for two days out of each week, which the researchers defined as “big or small acts that benefit others or make others happy, typically at some cost to yourself in terms of time or resources.” Participants could choose what acts of kindness to perform, and reportedly did things like offer people rides, bake cookies, and write thoughtful notes. 

At the end of five weeks, researchers evaluated the participants’ mental well-being by measuring their self-assessment of symptoms of anxiety and depression, satisfaction with life, and feelings of social connectedness. On average, all three groups showed improvements in the first two measures. They also maintained these improvements five weeks after they stopped performing their assigned activities.

“These results are encouraging, as they suggest that all three study interventions are effective at reducing distress and improving life satisfaction,“ wrote the researchers in the study. “Furthermore, the fact that both [thought records] and social activities showed significant improvement on these outcomes suggests they were rigorous comparisons for acts of kindness. That is, it was not the case that acts of kindness were being contrasted with inert study conditions or conditions that resulted in worse mental health.”

But the group tasked with performing acts of kindness showed the most improvement in all three measures—and only this group showed significant improvements in social connectedness, which researchers noted CBT techniques may not adequately address. 

According to the researchers, this may be because performing acts of kindness helped people take their minds off their own anxiety and depression.

Feelings of anxiety and depression may become so constant and overwhelming that people who struggle with them become preoccupied with that struggle. Some may also think that asking people with anxiety and depression to care about the well-being of others is asking too much since they have their own well-being to consider.

The study shows, however, that doing something good for others can at least stop that preoccupation and help people feel better themselves. 

“The results of this study highlight the clinical potential of acts of kindness, and future research will confirm whether acts of kindness should be incorporated in the canon of evidence-based clinical techniques,” wrote the researchers. 

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