Coping with rheumatoid arthritis

RA patients may develop a coping style early in the illness and utilize their favourite strategies when confronted with the stressor of illness. Little distinction was found between specific illness stressors, i.e. pain vs. disability, or whether a strategy had been successfully used before. In the face of a new illness, strategies may be tried out over a period of time, as the stressor is one for which everyday coping strategies are no longer appropriate or sufficient. As one health psychologist has written, 'Individuals' coping responses are often spontaneous; that is, people do what comes naturally to them and what has worked in the past. But sometimes these efforts will not be enough. The stressor may be so novel, so chronic, or so elusive that people's own efforts may be unsuccessful in reducing stress' (Taylor, 1985, p 213).