The Effects of Expressed Writing on Healing

There's lots of debate about what might be going on, whether holding in trauma or feelings you haven't dealt with causes stress which inhibits healing and immune responses. Studies have shown psychological and health benefits for people who write about completely imaginary traumas that never happened. But the effect is still observable and they're statistically significant so it can't be entirely explained by stress that's held in being released. Unless of course those imaginary trauma were secretly useful metaphors through which someone could slightly explore something too painful for them to confront directly but still, right? I don't know. It seems the effects are real.