Coping with psychosis: An integrative developmental framework

One important way in which persons with severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia, can influence the recovery process is by coping with the profoundly negative effects of mental illness. Despite accumulating evidence on the active role of the person in his or her recovery, there remains much conceptual confusion regarding the nature and categorization of the concept of coping. The present article constructs a clinically useful framework of coping that describes parallel and consecutive types of coping processes by applying Schwarzer's proactive coping theory to severe mental illness. Four coping modes including reactive, anticipatory, preventive, and proactive are described, and the role of meaning making is elaborated on as an integrative framework. Future research can be directed at validating the presented model and investigating the relationship between these types of coping and other relevant dimensions such as symptoms, functioning, and recovery.