Talking to yourself proves fruitful, helps in combating stress

New Delhi: A study has found that talking to yourself can prove fruitful and eventually help in combating stress during mentally straining events.

"Essentially, we think referring to yourself in the third person leads people to think about themselves more similar to how they think about others, and you can see evidence for this in the brain," said Jason Moser, associate professor at Michigan State University in the US.

"That helps people gain a tiny bit of psychological distance from their experiences, which can often be useful for regulating emotions," he said.

Researchers conducted two experiments. In one experiment participants viewed neutral and disturbing images and reacted to them in the first and third person while their brain activity was monitored by an electroencephalograph.

The team found that when reacting to the disturbing photos such as a man holding a gun to their heads, the emotional brain activity decreased within a second when they referred to themselves in the third person.

Researchers also measured participants' effort-related brain activity and found that using the third person was no more effortful than using first person self-talk.

(With PTI inputs)