Having Faith
For many facing cancer, spirituality is a strong therapy
By Saul Wisnia
Through her long cancer fight, Michelle Brids has sought the counsel both of her doctor, George Demetri, MD, (left) and her religious faith.
Michelle Brids has endured nearly a dozen surgeries and treatment protocols for a rare soft-tissue cancer, but her voice still resounds with optimism as she looks down at the crucifix and religious medallions hanging from her neck. She's at Dana-Farber this Tuesday morning awaiting word on her latest CAT scan, and while she's anxious about the upcoming news, Brids says she is "already at peace" with any potential results.
In their fight against a relentless, frightening illness, she and many other cancer patients at DFCI and elsewhere are turning to a powerful ally: their faith and spirituality. Spanning all religious and humanist boundaries, the approach gives these individuals and their families a source of courage and conviction at a time when it's easy to feel helpless. Whether it's through consultation with chaplains, prayer, inspiring poetry or music, or even walks in the woods, people are using spiritual means to better cope and make sense of their condition.
"I'm reaching out to people of all religions to get their insights and prayers. Without my faith, I don't think I could be making it through this."
— Michelle Brids
The medicinal benefits of faith-based actions may be open to debate, but there is no mistaking their popularity. A recent national telephone survey by Harvard Medical School researcher Anne McCaffrey, MD, revealed that 35 percent of people in the United States used prayer as a means of seeking better health. While 69 percent of this group rated prayer as "very helpful," the number jumped to 81 percent for cancer patients. Another poll, conducted by Newsweek magazine in mid-2003, reported that nearly three quarters of Americans "believe praying to God can cure someone — even if science says the person doesn't stand a chance."
"Cure rates have improved, but the word 'cancer' still carries a heavy burden in our society," says Rev. Walter Moczynski, MDiv, MTS, director of the Pastoral Care Department at Dana-Farber. "Whether or not they believe in God, everybody has a belief system. And when you are faced with a life-threatening illness, what you believe in is an important part of your healing or coping process."
For Brids, who is Catholic, this means daily talks with God to keep her strength and spirits up. Books such as The Anatomy of Hope: How People Prevail in the Face of Illness by renowned cancer and AIDS investigator Jerome Groopman, MD, are her constant waiting-room companions, and she meets monthly with a priest to receive his blessings. At Dana-Farber, she has attended services and readings in the interfaith chapel and benefited from treatments such as acupuncture and Reiki offered at the Leonard P. Zakim Center for Integrative Therapies.
"I pray for strength, faith, and a cure, and I know that God is listening," says the 41-year-old Brids, whose sarcoma forced her to stop working in 1997. "I've always believed in an afterlife, but I feel I've grown spiritually as a result of my cancer experience. I'm reaching out to people of all religions to get their insights and prayers; without my faith, I don't think I could be making it through this."
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