Journaling significantly reduces psychological stress
Multiple studies and clinical trials demonstrate that journaling interventions, including positive affect and expressive writing, can effectively reduce psychological stress and mental distress.
The retrieved papers consistently support the claim that journaling methods (such as positive affect journaling, expressive writing, and gratitude journaling) help reduce psychological stress, anxiety, and mental distress across various populations, including medical patients and individuals facing trauma. Paper [5] is a webinar intervention rather than journaling and is therefore treated as tangential and excluded. The overall evidence heavily supports the claim.
Joshua M Smyth, Jillian A Johnson, Brandon J Auer, Erik Lehman, Giampaolo Talamo, Christopher N Sciamanna. Online Positive Affect Journaling in the Improvement of Mental Distress and Well-Being in General Medical Patients With Elevated Anxiety Symptoms: A Preliminary Randomized Controlled Trial. 2018. https://doi.org/10.2196/11290
The study demonstrated that a 12-week web-based positive affect journaling intervention significantly decreased mental distress and anxiety among medical patients.
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Kay Wilhelm, Joanna Crawford. Expressive Writing and Stress-Related Disorders. 2018. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190681777.013.34
This chapter highlights that expressive writing techniques are associated with improvements in stress-related conditions and psychological distress.
Minjeong You, Eunjung Kim. Effects of Gratitude Journaling on Patients with Breast Cancer: A Randomized Controlled Trial. 2025. https://doi.org/10.3390/curroncol32070400
Research showed that gratitude journaling increased resilience and emotional well-being in patients with breast cancer.
Allison Laajala. Exploring Psychological Intimate Partner Violence Using Brief Expressive Writing Essays. https://doi.org/10.12794/metadc2256939
A brief expressive writing intervention helped participants process stressful relationship events and reduced psychological avoidance symptoms.
Joshua M Smyth, Jillian A Johnson, Brandon J Auer, Erik Lehman, Giampaolo Talamo, Christopher N Sciamanna. Online Positive Affect Journaling in the Improvement of Mental Distress and Well-Being in General Medical Patients With Elevated Anxiety Symptoms: A Preliminary Randomized Controlled Trial (Preprint). 2018. https://doi.org/10.2196/preprints.11290
This duplicate preprint record similarly supports that positive affect journaling mitigates mental distress and anxiety.
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