Feeling a little depressed? There is a very simple (and nice) thing that can be done - voila! health

Iris Cole interviews Dr. Oren Tana about depression and its treatment (Walla system)

The cold weather, the lack of sun and of course the early hours of darkness cause many to feel symptoms of depression or anxiety.

So besides leaving the house, eating well, exercising and meeting friends - there is another small and rather nice thing you can do to improve your feeling.

A new study has found that people experiencing symptoms of anxiety or depression will feel better or do a nice deed for others, one that, among other things, will distract them from their own feelings.

"Social connection is one of the components of life most strongly associated with well-being," says study author David Craig, a doctoral student in psychology at Ohio State University. "Performing acts of kindness seems to be one of the best ways to promote these connections."

The researchers compared the effects of performing acts of kindness - such as baking cookies for a friend or giving words of encouragement - against therapeutic techniques used to treat depression or anxiety, and found that the former action had an advantage over the others.

Want to feel good?

Make cookies.

For others, but (photo: Alon Mesika)

The researchers divided 122 Ohio residents with moderate to severe symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress into three groups.

They asked one group to plan social activities for two days a week for several weeks.

another group to adopt the emotion regulation strategy that asked them to reinterpret negative thought patterns and keep records at least two days a week, while the third group was asked to perform three acts of kindness - "big or small, that benefit others or make others happy, usually at some cost, in terms of time or resources " - for two days a week.

All three groups reported better life satisfaction and a reduction in symptoms of depression and anxiety, according to the study published last month in the Journal of Positive Psychology.

But the group that did acts of kindness showed greater improvements than the cognitive reappraisal group, and unlike the other two strategies, the acts of kindness made people feel more connected to others, says Craig.

"It's not enough to just be around other people. Doing nice things for people and focusing on the needs of others may help people with depression and anxiety feel better about themselves."

• health

• psychology

Tags

• depression

• anxiety