“If I Didn't Have My Faith I Would Have Killed Myself!”: Spiritual Coping in Patients Suffering From Schizophrenia

Abstract

Spirituality, religiousness, and existential thought were qualitatively investigated in six patients suffering from schizophrenia spectrum disorders. The present study is a deepening of a recently published quantitative investigation by Danbolt, Møller, Lien, and Hestad (2011) Danbolt, L., Møller, P., Lien, L. and Hestad, K. 2011. The personal significance of religiousness and spirituality in patients with schizophrenia. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 21: 145–158. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]. The patients in the present study were chosen on the basis of diversity as to how they experienced their spirituality to be of significance when coping with their disorder. The informants displayed many signs of spiritual struggle and transitional spiritual coping strategies, all of which seemed to be linked to hallucinatory experiences. Even though their spirituality met the criteria of religious delusions, the patients described their spirituality to have vital importance. The informants showed little spiritual preknowledge and seemed to be left alone without any clerical support in their spiritual struggle. This may underline the importance of including spiritual issues in the treatment of these patients.