Helping others can improve your own mental health
DID YOU KNOW?
Why This Works
Small acts of kindness don't just benefit the people receiving them. They may also improve our own mental health.
In a study of people experiencing symptoms of depression, anxiety, or stress, researchers found that performing acts of kindness improved feelings of social connection more than either planning enjoyable social activities or practicing a strategy to change negative thoughts. Acts of kindness also led to greater improvements in mental health symptoms and life satisfaction than the thought-changing strategy.
One possible explanation is that helping others shifts our attention away from worrying about ourselves and toward connecting with those around us.
What You Can Do
Choose Act of Kindness
Think of something you can do to make another person's day better. It could be helping a neighbor, doing a favor for a friend, or surprising someone with a thoughtful gesture.
What You Can Do
Make time for kindness
Try performing three acts of kindness on two days each week. They don't need to be big gestures—even small actions that take a little of your time or effort count.
What You Can Do
Notice how you feel
Pay attention to how helping others affects your mood, your thoughts, and your sense of connection. Try continuing the practice over several weeks.
The Science Behind It
Social connection plays an important role in our mental health and well-being. Yet people experiencing depression or anxiety often struggle to feel connected to others. Although established treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can help reduce symptoms, they may not always improve people's sense of social connection to the same degree.
Performing acts of kindness may offer another way to strengthen these connections while improving our own well-being.
Why Social Connection Matters
How Helping Others May Help Us
When we're experiencing anxiety or depression, we may become especially focused on our own thoughts, feelings, and concerns. Researchers have proposed that helping others can shift our attention outward, encouraging us to focus on other people's needs rather than our own worries.
In the study, participants who performed acts of kindness became less preoccupied with how others perceived them. This reduction in self-focused attention was associated with subsequent improvements in social connection, mental health symptoms, and life satisfaction. Although the researchers found evidence supporting this explanation, further research is needed to understand exactly how kindness produces these benefits.
What Does the Research Show?
Researchers at The Ohio State University randomly assigned 122 adults experiencing elevated symptoms of depression, anxiety, or stress to one of three activities: performing acts of kindness, planning enjoyable social activities, or completing exercises designed to help them rethink negative thoughts.
After five weeks, participants in all three groups reported improvements in mental health symptoms and life satisfaction. However, those who performed acts of kindness showed greater improvements in social connection than either of the other groups. They also experienced greater reductions in symptoms and improvements in life satisfaction than participants who completed the thought-changing exercises.
These improvements were generally maintained five weeks after the interventions ended. The findings suggest that doing kind things for others may be a promising strategy for improving both social connection and mental well-being (Cregg & Cheavens, 2023).
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