The claim presented is that making arts and crafts improves one mental health as much as having a job and is backed up by an article published by CNN. To begin in agreeance with said claim, the act of being creative or involving yourself in arts and crafts, has consistently been a catalyst for mental health. In an article by the Mental health Foundation, they list a few reasons as to why arts and crafts have drastically changed mental health. These include: making art helps people express themselves without having to use words, art can create a feeling of community, and art engagement has been proven to help aid in lowering stress, anxiety, and depression. To add on to this, in the Smithsonian Magazine, they state: "Research has found that making art can activate reward pathways in the brain, reduce stress, lower anxiety levels, and improve mood....Art therapy can help reduce pain and improve patients’ sense of control over their lives". So, there is no doubt that art has helped millions of people in their struggles with mental health. That being said, the article used in the claim attached something else to the end of their claim, saying that arts and crafts improves your mental health as much as having a job. There are only two mentions of anything to do with a job or work or employment in the entire article, neither actually providing sufficient evidence to the claim. The first is when the author says that, for her grandmother, "These activities provide her satisfaction and purpose in ways more fulfilling than work". There is no actual evidence backing this sentence, it simply relies on the personal experience of one person. The second mention looks more promising at first glance. When sharing the research done by Frontiers in Public Health on the topic, it was said that the participants "were also asked about their employment status", among other things. The issue with this is that they shared no other information that ties into the original claim. We know that they asked them that but they didn't provide anything further to solidify the correlation between arts and crafts and employment. This seemed to be the end of the discussion until an article by Forbes came out, analyzing the same research, but this time they actually expanded on the employment information. Helen Keyes, a cognitive psychologist at Anglia Ruskin University, adds, "the impact of crafting was bigger than the impact of being in employment. Not only does crafting give us a sense of achievement, it is also a meaningful route to self-expression. This is not always the case with employment". Though there still seems to be lack of actual scientific evidence, this does give a little more insight into the link between arts and crafts and an occupation. To conclude, this claim is true, even though it would be a much stronger truth if the "as much as having a job" part was removed. But, nevertheless, arts and crafts do improve your mental health.
