Depression and anxiety are two of the biggest mental health disorders in the world. However, as society becomes more and more open to discussing mental health, numerous methods on how to handle the disorders are being discovered.
The experts from the University of Otago in New Zealand are aware that there are dozens of books that claim to soothe negative feelings, but are they just a money making scheme? They wrote, “Adult colouring books have flooded the market with titles alluding to therapeutic value, yet it is unclear whether they fulfill that promise.”
The main aim of the study was to discover if the activity had the power to boost one’s mood. They asked 115 female students to take part in their experiment.They were aged between 18 and 36.
The researchers shared, “We tested whether adult colouring was related to improvements in psychological outcomes.”
The students were randomly assigned to “a colouring intervention or a logic-puzzle control group.”
For one week, the women were asked to make colouring or solving puzzles a part of their daily routine. Before they could take part in the seven-day study, they had to complete an inventory of psychological measures, such as stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms, flourishing, mindfulness, and resilience.
The participants were then asked to complete another inventory of psychological measures a week after the experiment.
The team discovered that the women who were asked to colour every day throughout the week had lower depressive symptoms and anxiety.
The women who did not take part in the colouring, but the puzzle solving did not make any major improvements.
The experts were stunned by the staggering impact colouring in made on the women’s mental health state, “We conclude that daily colouring can improve some negative psychological outcomes.”
They added, “Colouring in may provide an effective, inexpensive, and highly accessible self-help tool for nonclinical samples.”
Many people will be pleased to hear this new information. We know colouring may be viewed as a child’s activity, but it has many impressive benefits.
Colouring in works as a form of escapism. The activity takes our mind back to our childhood days where we didn’t have to worry about phone bills or ironing school uniforms.
Many people will find that the activity is very soothing. Colouring calms down our amygdala, which is the part of the brain that controls our fight or flight response. It is believed that colouring in for even half an hour can help calm down your brain.
We highly recommend this therapeutic activity, especially to those of you who are feeling extremely stressed or anxious.
For more information on how to help mental health disorders, click here.
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