Texting Offers Mental Health Benefits

There’s no denying that text messaging is a go-to form of communication for plenty of people. Along with taking photos, text messaging is the most common non-voice application Americans use on their cell phones. Text messaging users send or receive an average of 41.5 messages per day (with 18-24 year olds being the most prolific texters), according to the Pew Research Center. While texting is used as a form of quick, easy communication, recent research shows that it has far more potential. Texting actually has mental health benefits: the act of simply receiving a text message can improve mood as well as alleviate feelings of stress, isolation, and loneliness.

In 2010, Social Welfare Professor Adrian Aguilera from the University of California, Berkeley, developed a customized “Short Message Service (SMS)” intervention program for the patients treated: low-income Latinos struggling with depression and mental health disorders. The patients were sent automated text messages prompting them to track their moods and think about positive and negative interactions they experienced during the day. They also received texts reminding them to take their medications.

Aguilera found that people felt more connected and cared for when they received text messages. In fact, the text-messaging sessions were scheduled to last only for a certain number of weeks, and when they stopped, 75% of the patients requested to continue receiving them. Patients even noticed a difference in their moods and stress levels when the program stopped for a week due to a technical glitch.

Professor Aguilera developed the idea for the program when he noticed a gap between therapy and people’s everyday lives that was difficult to bridge: many of his patients had a hard time putting the coping skills they learned in therapy into practice because of routine stressors. They didn’t have regular access to laptops or the Internet, so Aguilera used text messages.

We’ve all heard the saying “Man is not an island,” and Aguilera’s findings point to our basic need for human interaction. They also concur with the findings of another study, which revealed that social interaction is essential to contentment and happiness. Achieving a sense of well-being requires five to six hours a day of social interaction (which actually includes text messaging!).

The bottom line: while texting often gets a bad rap, it has its place. It can boost feelings of connection and well-being in those struggling with depression or mental illness and in all people. Sending a text takes only a few seconds, and it can have a significant, positive impact on people by letting them know they’re cared about.

Olivia Roat is a reporter for GoStrengths.com, a site that offers depression prevention resources for teens and their parents.