Chronic Sorrow
Chronic illness is a concept that was brought to the fore over 40 years ago by Olshansky. The term is used to describe the grief and sadness experience that parents of children with disabilities go through for a lifetime. The intensity of this experience varies from person to person, family member to family member and situation to situation. Olshansky chose to view the phenomenon as a normal and continuous response as opposed to a pathological condition. Experts were encouraged to note the occurrence of the condition when dealing with a parent or a caregiver of a child with disability. They are encouraged to provide support the expressions and feelings of such parents (Peterson & Bredow, 2013, pp. 96-97).
The occurrence of chronic sorrow syndrome was validated by initial research carried out in the 80s. Researchers such as Burke et al. pointed out that the continuous nature of losing the 'perfect' child, deterred resolving the situation of grief. In addition, it was pointed out that such inability to close the loss experience is the reason for the periodic grief experiences that such parents encountered.
Early studies sought to polish the definition of chronic sorrow and determined that it was a permanent pervasive, progressive and periodic sadness (Peterson & Bredow, 2013, p. 97).
The Significance of the problem
Depressed people commonly...
Chronic sorrow and
anxiety also exhibit similar effects. These reactions can become more detrimental to parents of children with disabilities because such parents lack vents through which they can channel their stresses. Lack of socializing opportunity impairs the
social development of a child. Societal support can be of much help in supporting the children and their parents; which in turn enhances their coping ability. Mustering higher hope is associated with reducing chronic sorrow,
depression and anxiety. Such a stance supports one's wellbeing because it provides one with the ability to seek alternate goals in life in the face of the current ones being blocked, looking at the light side of situations, reframing such situations, observing meaning in hard encounters and developing skills for
problem solving (98).
One effective strategy to combat chronic sorrow is to design effective support programs that can assist families to live happily and hopefully. The focus in handling chronic sorrow should be to facilitate quality life for the
caregivers (Monsson, 2010, pp. 94-99)
Seminal Literature Review
Recent research shows that chronic sorrow is commonly experienced…
