Women Coping Proactively with Chronic Illness: A Model for Healing

Chronic illness, including conditions of aging and functional impairment, is increasingly problematic as society ages and attention is directed to tertiary prevention in health promotion and education. Because chronic illness is never completely cured, people are forced to adapt to their new health status and they begin an adaptive coping process. Living with chronic illness is a process of dealing with ongoing stressors in which the person's subjective perceptions are considered to be the main determining factor that affects subsequent behaviors and the health status of the individual. This qualitative study examined the question: How do women with the chronic illness multiple sclerosis cope everyday with the problems and distress of their illness to maintain a proactive coping and healing process? It is necessary for health educators to recognize and support the important role that people play in their own coping process. The objective of this poster session is to present the women's coping and healing strategies. It suggests a model that can be used for creating interventions that facilitate a positive change in people's subjective perceptions and support their proactive coping process. In changing their behaviors, they women engaged in three coping strategies of living one day at a time, focusing on positive aspects of the experience, and reevaluating what is most important in life. As chronically ill people adapt by trying to accommodate and flow with the experience of illness, adaptation moves into acceptance which is one of the most important characteristics for successful coping and healing.