According to a new small study, helping others can actually protect you from the negative effects of stress. For the study, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles and the Yale University School of Medicine recruited 77 adults between ages 18 and 44. Each evening for two weeks, participants received a reminder to complete a series of questionnaires.
One questionnaire asked about any stressful events they'd experienced, related to work, relationships, finances, and other domains. Another asked participants to indicate any prosocial (helping) behaviors they'd demonstrated, from holding open a door to helping out with schoolwork. Other surveys asked participants to report how often they'd experienced certain positive and negative emotions that day, and to rate their mental health for that day on a scale from 0 to 100.
Results showed that, on days when participants were more helpful than usual, they experienced no decrease in positive emotion or mental health quality, and only a slight increase in negative emotion in response to stress. On the other hand, when they were less helpful than usual, participants experienced lower positive emotion and higher negative emotion in response to stress.
The researchers write: "Results suggest that even brief periods of supporting or helping others might help to mitigate the negative emotional effects of daily stress."At this point, it's unclear exactly why and how helping behavior minimized the detrimental effects of stress. The researchers propose that supporting others might distract you from your own misery, at least temporarily. Helping others, they say, might also stimulate certain biological systems that tamp down the emotional stress response.
Of course, the study has some notable limitations, namely that all participants were Caucasian, so these findings may not apply to the general population. The researchers also acknowledge the necessity of future research that directly manipulates participants' stress levels and also tracks their stress response and helping behavior multiple times per day, as opposed to just once. Still, the main takeaway seems to be: Lend a hand, no matter how frazzled you feel. You could be doing the recipient and yourself a favor.
I have to say from the start that I'm amazed that someone actually thought it was necessary to conduct this research. I would've thought that to most people, that this premise of helping someone, actually making you feel better, would have been self evident to anyone that has helped someone.
As a person who has spent a large part of my life in employment that was based around helping others, I can assure you that yes, It certainly gives you a completely different perspective on what you might term "your problems".
When I was "a young fellow" I worked extensively with and for Indigenous Australian people and their organisations throughout the Northern Territory in Australia, in varied positions, including my last job in the NT which was as the Community Manager of a small community of 160 people about 3 hours drive north east of Alice Springs.
I currently work with adult people who are officially regarded as people with a disability.
As rewarding as this work is, it also requires a high level of personal health, well being and stress management of it's own. Self care and self awareness of your own limitations are paramount to being able to do the work that is required to the best of your own abilities.