GradedHealth

Does journaling reduce stress and improve mood?

Several trials link expressive and gratitude writing to small, lasting drops in stress, low mood and anxiety. The effects are modest and vary a lot.

Published October 2026

Short answer

Writing about feelings or gratitude gives small relief from stress and low mood in several trials. Evidence is limited, so treat it as a low-cost add-on, not a treatment. Evidence grade C (Limited). Several meta-analyses and small trials with modest, inconsistent effects; downgraded for inconsistency and small trials.

Key takeaways

  • Across 31 randomised trials, writing about feelings produced a small, significant drop in depression, anxiety and stress symptoms, and the effect appeared after a delay [1].
  • Writing sessions one to three days apart gave stronger effects than longer gaps between sessions [1].
  • A gratitude diary kept four times a week for three weeks improved stress and low mood in a small trial of women [2].
  • The reviews found high variation between studies and weak methods, so the size of the benefit is uncertain [3][4].
  • Writing did not clearly reduce anxiety or stress in pregnant women or in people with advanced illness [5][6].

The short version

Writing regularly about your feelings, or about things you are grateful for, may ease stress and low mood a little. A review of 31 randomised trials found a small effect on depression, anxiety and stress, and the effect appeared after a delay [1]. The benefit varies a lot between studies, so it is not a substitute for other care [3].

What the studies show

In the largest review, 31 trials with 4,012 adults, healthy and mildly symptomatic people who wrote about their feelings had a small benefit on depression, anxiety and stress (Hedges' g of −0.12). Sessions spaced one to three days apart gave stronger results than longer gaps [1].

A review of 20 trials of journaling in people with mental illness found a small-to-moderate benefit on symptoms. The authors flagged high variation between studies and weak methods [3].

A small trial of 65 women compared a gratitude diary and a mindfulness diary with a wait-list. Stress, low mood and happiness improved in both diary groups over three weeks, but not in the wait-list group [2].

In an online trial of 1,092 adults, a positive writing exercise in an app reduced anxiety right after the exercise, more than reading or measurement-only controls. The trial's declared conflicts name the app's former CEO and founder, so the result needs independent checks [7].

In general populations, writing about positive things lifted mood more than writing about negative experiences in 24 trials [8]. A review of 51 studies found the most consistent benefits for wellbeing and positive emotion, and less consistent effects on stress and anxiety. The authors rated all of those studies as poor or fair quality [4].

The nuances

The benefits are not seen everywhere. In eight trials with 929 pregnant women, expressive writing reduced trauma symptoms, but showed no clear effect on anxiety or stress, and the effect on depression was unclear [5]. In four trials with 214 people with advanced illness, writing made no clear difference to sleep, anxiety or depression compared with an active control, and the evidence was low quality [6].

The type of prompt may matter. In 136 Chinese American breast cancer survivors, one order of writing prompts reduced depressive and anxiety symptoms up to six months later, and this worked through lower perceived stress. The other order did not [9].

Writing about a stressful event can be painful, because it brings the memory back [10].

What this means for you

In the Chinese cancer trials, writing usually ran four to six sessions [11]. Both expressive and gratitude writing showed benefits in some trials, but results vary [3][4]. The review authors describe journaling as low risk [3]. If stress, low mood or anxiety are affecting your daily life, talk to a doctor or counsellor. Journaling can sit alongside that care but is not a replacement for it.

Go deeper

  • Journaling — Expressive and gratitude writing give small, lasting relief from stress and low mood in several trials.

References

  1. The delayed, durable effect of expressive writing on depression, anxiety and stress: A meta-analytic review of studies with long-term follow-ups.. Br J Clin Psychol, 2023.
  2. The effects of two novel gratitude and mindfulness interventions on well-being.. J Altern Complement Med, 2015.
  3. Efficacy of journaling in the management of mental illness: a systematic review and meta-analysis.. Fam Med Community Health, 2022.
  4. Positive expressive writing interventions, subjective health and wellbeing in non-clinical populations: A systematic review.. PLoS One, 2025.
  5. Effects of expressive writing intervention for women's PTSD, depression, anxiety and stress related to pregnancy: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.. Psychiatry Res, 2020.
  6. Expressive writing as a therapeutic intervention for people with advanced disease: a systematic review.. BMC Palliat Care, 2019.
  7. The Immediate Impact of App-Based Psychotherapeutic Exercises on Anxiety: An RCT.. Depress Anxiety, 2025.
  8. Efficacy of expressive writing versus positive writing in different populations: Systematic review and meta-analysis.. Nurs Open, 2023.
  9. The effects of culturally adapted expressive writing interventions on depressive and anxiety symptoms among Chinese American breast cancer survivors: A randomized controlled trial.. Behav Res Ther, 2023.
  10. Writing about a stressful experience improves semantic clustering of memory in men, not women.. Stress Health, 2024.
  11. The effect of expressive writing on Chinese cancer patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized control trails.. Clin Psychol Psychother, 2023.