Religion as a Coping Mechanism

Coping is a mechanism used to deal with a traumatic event, emotionally or physically, in your life. These events could range from divorce to a death in the family; there can be more minor events as well, like failing a test or getting a cold. Religion, physical activity, therapy, and many other strategies can be used to cope with a stressful event in one’s life as well as negative coping strategies, such as smoking, eating disorders, or binge drinking. People with a chronic disease have to cope with their illness every day; I will be looking at a coping strategy used by elderly women who had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer.

                One coping strategy that many people use to deal with events that happen in their life is religion. Among elderly people, religion can help relieve the stress surrounding an illness or other stressors that could affect them. Being a part of a religion can provide social support for those involved and can give them opportunities for interpersonal interactions and volunteering opportunities. Religion can also give a person a sense of control of their destiny. There was a study done among elderly (65 and over) women who had been recently (in the past 6 months) diagnosed with breast cancer. How they coped with the stress and anxiety they felt from the diagnosis. 33 women were used in the study which consisted of an interview with open ended questions that lasted for about 2 hours for each participant. Three main themes arose after all the interviews had been conducted: emotional support, social support, and meaning. (1)

                30 out of the 33 women talked about how their religion gave them emotional support that helped them deal with their breast cancer. The participants felt as if “they could count on God during their illness experience” (1) since they felt as if they couldn’t tell others about their fears surrounding their condition because it would burden others. Underneath emotional support, there were 7 sub-themes that were observed. Companionship was mentioned by 16 different participants as something that they found through religion. This was important, especially for the ones who lived alone due to divorce or being widowed. 12 participants also had a feeling of being taken care of through their religion. They felt as if God would watch out for them and provide the best outcome. 3 of those same women also felt as if the doctor and surgeon were only vehicles in which God worked through to provide the best care. A reliance on faith was also reported from 11 respondents. They talked about how they rely on God or on their faith during the breast cancer experience. For 11 women, they got a sense of well-being from their faith which provided hope that their cancer would be cured; it gave them a sense of self-worth and gave them optimism. There were other categories, such as comfort, guidance, strength, and mitigation of fear that all were provided to the participants through their faith. (1)

                The next main category is social support provided by the participants’ religious house, such as a church or synagogue, and everyone who goes to that church too whether or not they participants knew the people of the religious house or not. Underneath social support, there were 5 subcategories, including prayer for and by others, which showed the participants support from people other than their doctor, religious volunteer work, which gave the 9 women who reported this as a way of social support and an activity that they could do during treatment, going to church or to a synagogue to be in attendance with others, having a relationship with the religious leader also provided support for 6 of the women because the leader could talk with them and could come to their house to administer communion or to pray with them, and lastly some were provided religion through their children bringing it to them and involving them with prayer or taking them to their church. (1)

                The last main category is how religion provided a meaning for two-thirds of the participants. These women identified themselves with what religion they were involved with and felt that it really gave them meaning to life. The three subcategories under meaning were providing 10 women with a moral compass, which means that they felt enabled by their faith to be good people and to be able to tell right from wrong, 9 of the women described their religion as being who they were, one even responding to the question “In what ways would you say you’re religious?” and the woman said “I’m Jewish” (1), many others had a similar response to the question, and finally 8 participants referred to the diagnosis of breast cancer to being part of God’s plan, saying that the breast cancer was “in the hands of God” (1) and the cancer being “out of their control” (1).

                This study shows that religion can be a great way to cope with a traumatic event in one’s life, even when dealing with a health issue. Although this study only deals with a fraction of patients who have breast cancer, it still provided evidence that religion can be a good coping mechanism for anyone who has been through a hard event in life.

Question: How can this study be improved to provide better information on religion as a coping mechanism? 

Reference:

1.       Feher, Shoshanah, and Rose C. Maly. "Coping With Breast Cancer In Later Life: The Role Of Religious Faith." Psycho-Oncology 8.5 (1999): 408-416. Print