Write What You Feel: Breast Cancer Survivors Emotionally Heal with Expressive Journaling

For many breast cancer survivors, dealing with the fears and emotions from the diagnosis, treatment and recovery process can help them cope.

Findings published in the journal Health Psychology showed that for many, expressive writing intervention was a key part of their progression into a normal life.

"In my research study, I found long-term physical and psychological health benefits when research participants wrote about their deepest fears and the benefits of a breast cancer diagnosis," said lead study author Qian Lu, an assistant professor and director of the Culture and Health Research Center at the University of Houston, Tex., in a news release. 

Lu and colleagues focused primarily on the psychological needs of Asian-American breast cancer survivors, which they said was a sample population who received little attention in previous studies that focused primarily on non-Hispanic white samples.

Researchers found that writing emotionally about the health issue for as little as 20 to 30 minutes a day over three to four days increased immune function. Furthermore, it helped place a direct impact on the body's capacity to withstand stress and ward off and infection and disease better.

For the study, researchers worked with a community-based partner to recruit participants who completed a standardized health assessment. Participants were asked to write 20 minutes each week for three weeks. Three sealed envelopes were mailed simultaneously to participants with each envelope containing different writing instructions for the corresponding week. Three and six months later, questionnaires assessing health outcomes were then mailed to participants following the completion of their writing assignments. Lastly, phone-interviews were set up at the 6-month follow up period.

"The findings from the study suggest participants perceived the writing task to be easy, revealed their emotions, and disclosed their experiences in writing that they had not previously told others. Participants reported that they wrote down whatever they thought and felt and perceived the intervention to be appropriate and valuable," Lu concluded.