Emotional disclosure about traumas and its relation to health: Effects of previous disclosure and trauma severity.

Abstract

This study sought to replicate previous findings that disclosing traumas improves physical health and to compare the effects of revealing previously disclosed versus undisclosed traumas. According to inhibition theory, reporting about undisclosed traumas should produce greater health benefits. Sixty healthy undergraduates wrote about undisclosed traumas, previously disclosed traumas, or trivial events. Contrary to expectations, there were no significant between-groups differences on longer term health utilization and physical symptom measures. However, Ss who disclosed more severe traumas reported fewer physical symptoms in the months following the study, compared with low-severity trauma Ss, and tended to report fewer symptoms than control Ss. Results suggest that health benefits occur when severe traumas are disclosed, regardless of whether previous disclosure has occurred.

Potential benefits of expressive writing for male college students with varying degrees of restrictive emotionality.

“…Further, some studies have shown that writing about stressful events that had been previously disclosed to others produced comparable health benefits to writing about previously undisclosed stressful experiences (e.g., Greenberg & Stone, 1992). These results raise questions regarding the necessity of writing about previously inhibited thoughts and feelings.…”

Getting to the Heart of the Matter: Written Disclosure, Gender, and Heart Rate

“…A Likert-type scale is used to rate items according to symptoms experienced in the past week, ranging from 0 (not at all) to 3 (most of the time). Factor analytic studies with both clinical and nonclinical samples have shown that the DASS 21 items can be reliably grouped into three scales: depression, anxiety, and stress (18) and that the measure differentiates between symptoms of anxiety and depression, as well as between symptoms of physical arousal and symptoms of generalized anxiety (e.g., tension (18)). The depression subscale is composed of items that measure symptoms associated with depressed mood (e.g., sadness, worthlessness), whereas the anxiety subscale includes items that are related to symptoms of physical arousal, panic attacks, and fear (e.g., trembling, faintness).…”

Psychological and Social Correlates of HIV Status Disclosure: The Significance of Stigma Visibility

“…Numerous studies have documented negative reactions to HIV status disclosure (Alonzo & Reynolds, 1995;Black & Miles, 2002) and the subsequent detrimental consequences for psychological well-being (Bing et al, 2001;Heckman et al, 2004;Pence, Miller, Whetten, Eron, & Gaynes, 2006;Stutterheim et al, 2009) and social relationships (Lee & Craft, 2002), thus suggesting that it would be wise to keep one's HIV status a secret. Others have shown that concealing a stigmatized condition also has very substantial psychological and social costs, including stress (Greenberg & Stone, 1992;Pennebaker, Colder, & Sharp, 1990), poor mental health outcomes (Derlega, Winstead, Oldfield, & Barbee, 2003;Steward et al, 2008;Ullrich, Lutgendorf, & Stapleton, 2003), strained social interactions (Smart & Wegner, 1999), social isolation (Corrigan & Matthews, 2003;Remennick, 2000), and the insufficient provision of social support (Alonzo & Reynolds, 1995;Chesney & Smith, 1999). The role of social support is particularly important as it not only enables PLWH to better cope with health concerns (Smith, Rossetto, & Peterson, 2008) but also buffers stress, anxiety, and depression that can result from, among other things, stigmatization (Kalichman, DiMarco, Austin, Luke, & DiFonzo, 2003;Lam, Naar-King, & Wright, 2007;Li, Lee, Thammawijaya, Jiraphongsa, & Rotheram-Borus, 2009).…”