To describe the way in which the fibromyalgia patients understand the meaning of their illness.
Qualitative, empirical phenomenological psychological method.
A collaborative transdisciplinary interview study of patients' described experiences of living with fibromyalgia. No therapeutic relationships existed between patients and researchers.
Eighteen patients with fibromyalgia were interviewed. Ten of the 18 taped interviews were transcribed and analysed.
Patients' narratives, described experiences of living with fibromyalgia.
The patients were intensively involved in efforts to get their self-images as ill persons confirmed. Their experience was that the disease started dramatically, with a variety of capriciously appearing symptoms of unknown cause that gave rise to the suffering. The fibromyalgia patients seemed to develop strategies to cope with a precarious self-image and find ways to manage the thought of what the future would bring.
The meaning structures revealed in the patients' ways of describing their experiences of living with fibromyalgia seemed to be partially constituted by their efforts to stand forth as afflicted with a disease, which could be a way to help them to manage the demands that they placed upon themselves.