Does Swearing Reduce Stress?

For ages, parents and teachers have told us that swearing is bad, and we shouldn’t do it. However, did you know research has proven that cursing is good for you and can actually relieve stress?

According to researchers at Keele University, swearing and yelling raises your heart rate, which activates a fight-or-flight response. They conducted a study where men put their hands in ice water using profanity and then not using profanity. When the men used the strong language, they were able to keep their hands in longer. This study showed that swearing actually helped relieve the pain of the cold water on the men’s hands.

“I would advise people, if they hurt themselves, to swear,” says Richard Stevens, a psychologist.

“There is a time and place for everything. There’s definitely a difference between swearing when you are alone to de-stress and dropping inappropriate words in a professional setting.” Said Laura Weaver, a teacher.

When you’re able to express your emotions, it allows you to cope with pain a lot better.  Though the use of curse words is proven to help people in painful situations, it’s important to be aware of who you’re using your vulgar language around. You wouldn’t want a child to hear and then they start swearing.

“I cuss everyday and it really helps me feel better if I’m said,” Said Lache Barnfield, a Junior.

Cursing is also proven to be efficient while working out. Another study was done by Richard Stevens where 29 volunteers worked out while swearing and also while not swearing. The study showed that there was a 4% performance boost while the volunteers used swear words.

The use of swear words can surprisingly be used to make you seem like more of an honest and genuine person.

“Cursing in a positive scenario makes us come across as honest, authentic and assertive because swearing is such a raw form of expression,” said therapist Amy Deacon.

Much more research needs to be done on the topic of cursing while stressed to draw a conclusion. However, Richard Stevens research and our own personal experiences show that swearing does indeed reduce stress at least a little bit.

Now we just need to figure out what swear words would be appropriate for school. Hmmm…that is entirely a different story.

Picture Credit:  Google Images