Gratitude and anxiety: what the research shows

The short answer

Gratitude exercises reliably nudge up positive feelings: happiness, life satisfaction, good mood. Their effect on anxiety specifically is small, and in some analyses not distinguishable from comparison activities. If you are hoping a gratitude list will calm an anxious mind, it may help a little on some days. It is not a treatment for an anxiety disorder.

What the meta-analyses found

Meta-analyses pool many studies to see what holds up. Three are worth knowing.

Davis and colleagues (2016) looked at gratitude interventions across three outcomes. Compared with alternative activities, gratitude exercises increased gratitude itself and psychological wellbeing, but the effect on anxiety (d = 0.11, from five studies) was small and not statistically reliable.

Dickens (2017) ran a series of meta-analyses across thirty-eight studies. Gratitude interventions improved a number of outcomes, including happiness, but did not move others, and the author concluded that their unique benefits may be overemphasised in the literature.

Cregg and Cheavens (2021) focused squarely on symptoms of depression and anxiety, pooling 27 studies with 3,675 participants. They found limited evidence: gratitude groups did slightly better than comparison groups, but the difference was small. The authors pointed people with anxiety or depression towards treatments with stronger evidence, such as cognitive behavioural therapy.

Why the effects look small

Part of the answer is how the studies are built. A gratitude exercise is usually compared with another writing task. When that task is neutral, like listing what you did today, gratitude tends to come out a little ahead. When it is another positive exercise, like imagining your best possible future, the two usually do about as well as each other. Davis and colleagues found exactly that pattern.

So the honest summary is not that gratitude fails, but that much of its benefit seems to come from spending a few minutes on something warm and personal, which other kind habits also provide. That is still worth having. It is just not a treatment for anxiety, and it should not be sold as one.

Where gratitude does seem to help

None of this means gratitude is useless for a worried mind. It may help in quieter, indirect ways.

It shifts attention. Anxiety narrows attention onto threats. A few minutes spent deliberately recalling what went well widens it again, at least for a while. That is not the same as reducing an anxiety disorder, but it can make an evening feel different.

It may help with stress. Fekete and Deichert (2022) randomly assigned adults during the COVID-19 pandemic to gratitude writing, expressive writing about the pandemic, or a control. A month later, the gratitude group had lower stress and negative mood, while the expressive writing group showed no change in stress. One study, in an unusual period, but a useful hint.

It may help at night. Small trials suggest gratitude can reduce pre-sleep worry about as well as other techniques do. See gratitude and sleep for the details and the caveats.

Where it can backfire

Gratitude turns sour when it becomes a rule about how you are supposed to feel. “Other people have it worse, so I should be grateful” is not gratitude; it is a reason to feel guilty about being anxious. If your practice starts sounding like that, it is working against you.

It also should not be a way to avoid a problem. If a worry needs action, like a conversation, a bill, an appointment, then noticing three good things is a nice end to the day but not a replacement for dealing with it.

A practice that respects anxiety

If you live with anxiety and want to try gratitude, here is a version that tends to sit well:

• Keep it small and concrete. “The barista remembered my order” is easier to believe than “I have so much to be thankful for”.
• Let the hard part be true. You can say what was hard and still name one thing that helped.
• Do it at a calm moment, not in the middle of a spike. It is a habit for the ordinary hours.
• Stop if it makes you feel worse. A practice should leave you a little lighter, not more pressured.
• Keep it private. Many people find it easier to be honest in a private journal that nobody else will read.

When to look for more

If worry is stopping you from sleeping, working or seeing people, or you have panic attacks, it is worth talking to a doctor or a qualified therapist. Treatments such as cognitive behavioural therapy have a much stronger record for anxiety than any gratitude exercise. A gratitude habit can sit alongside that work as something kind you do for yourself, which is exactly the role it is suited to.

If you are having a hard day right now and cannot think of anything good, start with our guide on what to do when you cannot think of anything.