A simple writing exercise shows promise for reducing anxiety

A new study suggests that the vividness of a person’s fears about their future may be linked to anxiety through its effect on their self-esteem. The research, published in the journal Psychological Reports, indicates that having a very clear mental picture of a feared future self is associated with lower self-worth, which in turn is connected to higher anxiety. The work also explored a writing exercise that showed potential for reducing anxiety in the moment.

Our conceptions of who we might one day become, known as “possible selves,” shape our present motivations and emotions. These mental projections include both our hopes for the future, like becoming a successful artist, and our fears, such as failing in a career or being alone. The clarity of these future images can vary greatly from person to person, and this variation has captured the attention of psychologists studying mental health. Researchers have observed that individuals with higher anxiety often report more detailed and intense mental images of negative future events.

A team of researchers at York St John University in the United Kingdom sought to better understand this connection. The group, led by Jennifer Shevchenko, was interested in the mechanism behind the link between clear feared selves and anxiety. A common explanation, based on what is known as Attentional Control Theory, suggests that anxiety biases a person’s attention toward threats. This prolonged focus could naturally make threatening mental images, including feared future selves, seem more vivid. This perspective treats the clear images as a consequence of anxiety.

The researchers proposed an additional possibility: that the clarity of these feared selves could also actively contribute to anxiety. They hypothesized that self-esteem might be a key factor in this process. Self-esteem, which refers to a person’s overall sense of self-worth, is known to have a reciprocal relationship with anxiety; low self-esteem can be both a predictor and a consequence of anxiety symptoms.

The team wondered if experiencing a highly detailed vision of a feared future could feel so psychologically real that it damages a person’s current self-esteem, thereby feeding into their anxiety.

To investigate this, the researchers designed a two-part study involving 68 university students who participated online. For the first part of the study, they employed a correlational design, which examines relationships between different variables as they naturally occur. Participants completed several questionnaires. One was a standard assessment for generalized anxiety, and another measured self-esteem. They also completed a task where they described their “feared possible selves” and then rated how clear the mental images associated with these fears were.

The analysis of this data revealed several expected connections. Higher levels of anxiety were associated with lower levels of self-esteem. In addition, higher anxiety was associated with greater clarity of feared possible selves, meaning people with more anxiety tended to see their fears more vividly. A new connection was also identified: lower self-esteem was associated with having clearer images of a feared future.

The team then used a statistical method called mediation analysis to test their central hypothesis about the role of self-esteem. The results supported their prediction. The analysis showed that self-esteem accounted for the relationship between the clarity of feared selves and anxiety.

In simpler terms, the connection between having a vivid fear for the future and experiencing anxiety appeared to be channeled through a person’s sense of self-worth. Having a highly detailed mental picture of a feared future was linked to lower self-esteem, and this lower self-esteem was, in turn, associated with greater anxiety.

The second part of the study explored a potential intervention. Using a repeated-measures design, the researchers assessed participants’ anxiety levels at three different points. They measured anxiety at the beginning of the study, then again after the task where participants described their feared future, and a final time after they completed a writing exercise known as the Best Possible Self technique. This technique instructed participants to write in detail about a future in which everything had gone as well as it possibly could and they had achieved their goals.

After collecting the data, the researchers divided the participants into two groups based on their initial anxiety scores: a “probable anxiety” group and a “non-probable anxiety” group. The results showed that after writing about their feared selves, participants in the probable anxiety group reported a slight increase in their anxiety. By contrast, after completing the Best Possible Self writing exercise, participants in both groups reported a significant decrease in their anxiety levels compared to their baseline measurements.

The researchers acknowledge certain limitations to their work. The study was conducted with a sample of university students, so the findings may not apply to the broader population or to individuals with a clinical diagnosis of an anxiety disorder. Because the first part of the study was correlational, it identifies associations but cannot definitively prove that one factor causes another. The observed reduction in anxiety from the writing exercise was also measured immediately afterward, so it is unclear how long this effect might last.

Future research could build upon these findings by studying different populations, including those receiving treatment for anxiety. Longitudinal studies that follow participants over time would be useful for establishing the long-term effects of interventions like the Best Possible Self technique. The researchers also suggest that future experiments could directly measure whether the writing exercise works by improving self-esteem or by increasing the clarity of positive future selves. Such work could help refine simple, low-cost tools for managing anxiety.

The study, “Anxiety and Future-Self Clarity: Can Future Thinking Influence Self-Esteem?,” was authored by Jessica Duffy, Grace Salt, Scott N. Cole, Divine Charura, and Jennifer Shevchenko.