Dear diary, you make me sick
"Keeping a diary is bad for your health, say UK psychologists. They found that regular diarists were more likely than non-diarists to suffer from headaches, sleeplessness, digestive problems and social awkwardness.
Their finding challenges assumptions that people find it easier to get over a traumatic event if they write about it.
“We expected diary keepers to have some benefit, or be the same, but they were the worst off,” says Elaine Duncan of the Glasgow Caledonian University. “In fact, you’re probably much better off if you don’t write anything at all,” she adds.
The study, carried out with David Sheffield of Staffordshire University, was presented on Wednesday at a meeting of the British Psychological Society in Edinburgh."
New Scientist.com news service
Andy Coghlan
[Thanks Janine/via MeFi]
March 14, 2005 in Writing | Permalink
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Comments
Keeping a diary makes you see things clearer - youself, your situation, the world around you. If that's causing you sleeplessness, headaches etc., I guess you're still better off than a non-diarist. Sometimes these scientist just seem to miss the right connections between things.
Posted by: Antigone | Mar 14, 2005 9:48:22 AM
Hmmm - I wonder if the sort of people who write diaries are those that suffer more from life's challenges in the first place rather than being MADE to suffer by their writing?!
Michael - diarist and headache sufferer, but not necessarily in that order.
Posted by: Michael Nobbs | Mar 14, 2005 11:16:28 AM
Say it isn't so!
(:-S
Posted by: Sylvia | Mar 14, 2005 11:18:14 AM
The end of the story should help us feel better about this:
"But she acknowledges that her experiment could not demonstrate which came first - the diary writing or the health problems. In a forthcoming experiment, she hopes to explore this by asking volunteers new to diary writing to report exclusively positive or negative things, to see if the health of the two groups diverges."
At least someone involved in the study understands that correlation is not causation, even if the author of the article seems not to.
Posted by: Mark | Mar 14, 2005 11:54:44 AM
BREAKING NEWS:
"Psychological experimentation is bad for your health, says a US diarist. She found that regular psychological testers were more likely than non-psychological testers to suffer from headaches, sleeplessness, digestive problems and social awkwardness.
Her finding challenges assumptions that people find it easier to get over a traumatic event if they undergo psychological testing."
Posted by: Ninth Wave | Mar 14, 2005 1:29:25 PM
:-D
Posted by: Sylvia | Mar 14, 2005 3:22:00 PM
Chicken and the egg stuff, me thinks. Could be that people who have these problems are more likely to be journal keepers.
Now where are the headache tablets? I need to make a journal entry.
Posted by: Robyn | Mar 14, 2005 5:17:38 PM
Just remember that study of Catholic nuns, in which the ones who wrote were much less likely to suffer from Alzheimer's! Now, that's something to worry about!
Posted by: Dan Carmell | Mar 14, 2005 8:16:37 PM
