Ett liv efter stressrelaterat utmattningssyndrom : en kvalitativ studie av hur stress hanteras senare i livet av människor med tidigare utmattningssyndrom

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study was a deeper understanding of how people with former exhaustion disorder deal with stress later in life, what they consider helped and helps them, and their current stress-related challenges. Seven people who considered themselves recovered were interviewed 3-25 years after illness. The semi-structured interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed with inductive content analysis. The result was multifaceted, complex and provides a level of detail that favors understanding and practical application. Five main themes described the participants current stress management: Symptoms of stress, Lessons learned, Challenges, Handling and External perspectives. It emerged among other things, that exhaustion disorder changes the whole life forever. That many symptoms, handling and challenges remain even 3-25 years later. That the afterlife means a constant conscious balancing that when it succeeds means well-being but when it fails brings different degrees of increasing problems. A type of relapse where the body and psyche react faster than before, but the person, through self-development and life design, has acquired a better foundation than before for handling stress and uses different strategies and tools to halt and recover. Strategies and tools that might also help other people.