Fibromyalgia, a long-term or chronic disorder, is not well understood
by the medical community until now. Its symptoms include chronic muscle pain,
fatigue, sleep problems, and painful tender points or trigger points, which often
overlap with other diseases. Due to the cause of fibromyalgia is unknown, there
isn’t a very effective way to cure this disease though a variety of medications
can help control symptoms.
In this paper, the authors introduced a forgiveness education in
patients with fibromyalgia based on Worthington and Scherer’s view that
forgiveness was an emotion-focused coping strategy that may promote health.
First, the authors hypothesized that forgiveness could potentially be a useful
coping strategy in patients with fibromyalgia. Then a qualitative study was conducted
in a workshop setting. The authors identified a random sample of patients with
fibromyalgia who completed the Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Clinic
Treatment Program in 2010. And the participants were mailed a letter of
invitation and instructions to return the letter with their contact information
and preference to attend 1 of 2 forgiveness education sessions. Then forgiveness
was presented to participants by using a video and workbook in a workshop
setting and each education session was 90 minutes long. Next, the authors
analyzed the observation of participant engagement, themes related to
educational content, feedback
about the education format and delivery of information and forgiveness application
to daily life. And collected data were analyzed by the study investigators with
expertise in qualitative research methods.
The analysis of qualitative data revealed 3 important themes. First, participants readily
accepted forgiveness as an emotion-focused coping strategy and understood the
associations between harboring resentment, internalizing stress, and
experiencing symptoms. Second, participants welcomed the notion that
forgiveness was about controlling personal responses to adversity and injustice
and understood that this control was especially relevant in the context of
chronic pain. Third, participants found that the forgiveness education
reinforced concepts that they had learned in other patient education sessions.
All in all, the results suggested that forgiveness education was
acceptable to patients with fibromyalgia. And forgiveness education warranted
further study as an emotion-focused coping strategy.
Article by Loren L. Toussaint, et al, from
USA.
Full access: http://mrw.so/1Lkf7X
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| Image by Young Living Prospector, from Flickr-cc. |
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