By Sabrina Dudley-Johnson
June 21, 2017
Religion and Spirituality as Fibromyalgia coping tools
So, which of these concepts of faith, (religion, spirituality, or religiosity) can take a helpful place in one’s Fibro management toolbox?
As mentioned earlier, people with Fibromyalgia use a plethora of well-established coping techniques, create their own personal techniques, and utilize “cognitive-behavioral strategies, to cope with their pain. (Some people with Fibro also use) spirituality [and] religious forms of coping”. [i] The practicing of religion and/or spirituality has been found to have the same effects on people with chronic pain as other non-secular techniques. Research has shown that people with “chronic pain and fatigue are significantly more spiritual but less religious (and use prayer and spiritual meditation) as coping mechanisms more than the general population.” [ii]
Offenbaecher, et. al state that religion and spirituality, either together or separately, often positively increase the practitioner’s mood. However, neither religion nor spirituality changes the level of severity of pain. [iii] Religion and Spirituality do not make a difference in the experience of pain or number of concurrent symptoms, as compared to “people with chronic pain who are less spiritual or religious.” [iv] Actually, Dedeli, et. al reported that the more religious a pain patient is, high church attendance and relinquishment of self-efficacy and control, the higher their levels of “psychopathology and pain intensity”. [v] So giving one's control of Fibro management over to God may not be very effective.
There are positive and negative religious and spiritual coping strategies.
Positive Religious/Spiritual Coping Strategies
1) Prayer/Spiritual meditation; [“a conversation between you and a greater-than-human intelligence, a heartfelt conversation that requires no special (location, equipment,) skills or experience”.] [vi]
2) Looking to God or Higher Power for strength to do what needs to be done to take control of one’s health and pain.
3) Collaborative problem-solving with God or Higher Power (the person with FM expects their active participation is required along with religious or spiritual coping techniques);
4) Not looking at pain as suffering
5) Seeking spiritual support (the social interaction of attending mass or other religious or spiritual gatherings)
6) Reading a daily devotion, scripture, or motivational message.
Negative Religious/Spiritual Coping Strategies
One study found that “not all religious coping strategies are useful. Negative religious coping leads to poorer outcomes and is considered maladaptive.” [vii]
Negative religious coping strategies include:
1) Refusing medical intervention because of religious beliefs
2) Relinquishing personal responsibility for one’s healthcare and/or Fibromyalgia management (give it over to God);
3) Denying that there is a healthcare or pain management crisis (don’t claim it);
4) Feeling abandoned by God;
5) Viewing illness as a punishment from God or blaming God for the pain;
6) Intercessory Prayer (asking God or Higher Power to take away the pain and other symptoms).
Prayer, or spiritual meditation, can be a positive or a negative coping mechanism. “Prayer, (or spiritual meditation), when used as a means to relinquish control and responsibility for pain solutions, can negatively impact disability and perceived self-control”. [viii]
In a research study conducted by Sollgruber, et al., it was found;
“that spiritual meditation has a unique additional effect of reducing the negative effect (of pain). (The availability of) spiritual resources are associated with improved pain tolerance.” [ix]
The study related that;
“the practice of (spiritual) meditation … did not alter the pain intensity … (however spiritual meditation did have) an effect on how well the subjects tolerated the pain level … and how intensively they rated pain.” [x]
So religion and spirituality when used positively, can be effective skills to add to one's Fibro management tool box.
Footnotes
[i] M. Offenbaecher, N. Kohls, L. L. Toussaint, et al., “Spiritual Needs in Patients Suffering from Fibromyalgia,” Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, vol. 2013, Article ID 178547, 13 pages, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/178547. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3853480/ [ii] Baetz, M, and R Bowen. “Chronic pain and fatigue: Associations with religion and spirituality.” Pain research & management vol. 13,5 (2008): 383-8. doi:10.1155/2008/263751 [iii] Ibid [iv] Ibid [v] Dedeli, Ozden, and Gulten Kaptan. “Spirituality and Religion in Pain and Pain Management.” Health psychology research vol. 1,3 e29. 23 Sep. 2013, doi:10.4081/hpr.2013.e29 [vi] Spine Universe. “Prayer as a Component of Managing Chronic Pain; The most common non-pharmaceutical practice to help manage pain”. Steven Richeimer, MD https://www.spineuniverse.com/treatments/pain-management/prayer-component-managing-chronic-pain [vii] Taheri-Kharameh, Zahra et al. “Negative Religious Coping, Positive Religious Coping, and Quality of Life Among Hemodialysis Patients.” Nephro-urology monthly vol. 8,6 e38009. 20 Sep. 2016, doi:10.5812/numonthly.38009 [viii] Dedeli, Ozden, and Gulten Kaptan. “Spirituality and Religion in Pain and Pain Management.” Health psychology research vol. 1,3 e29. 23 Sep. 2013, doi:10.4081/hpr.2013.e29 [ix] Sollgruber A, Bornemann-Cimenti H, Szilagyi IS, Sandner-Kiesling A (2018) “Spirituality in pain medicine: A randomized experiment of pain perception, heart rate and religious spiritual well-being by using a single session meditation methodology.” PLOS ONE 13(9): e0203336. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203336 [x] Sollgruber A, Bornemann-Cimenti H, Szilagyi IS, Sandner-Kiesling A (2018) “Spirituality in pain medicine: A randomized experiment of pain perception, heart rate and religious spiritual well-being by using a single session meditation methodology.” PLOS ONE 13(9): e0203336. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203336
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