To explore patients’ existential challenges when living with chronic pain or multiple sclerosis, 23 semistructured patient interviews were conducted together with an interpretative, phenomenological analysis inspired by Søren Kierkegaard. Patients experienced their illness as a “stroke of fate” resulting in despair and a profound struggle to find out, who they were, and how they could relate to themselves in their new life-situation. Becoming oneself was experienced as a long-term existential process realized by synthesizing the existential poles of necessities and possibilities through “the other,” such as relationships, nature, spirituality, or God. The different ways to respond to the existential challenges were identified as subjective choices of aesthetic, ethic, and religious life-spheres. The Kierkegaardian relational self and the life-spheres as diverse possibilities are valuable for understanding patients’ existential challenges and the complicated process of finding a new way to relate to oneself when life is fundamentally transformed by illness. To resolve the existential struggles, it seems essential to take a subjective stand in life and have a relationship to something bigger than oneself. The findings can inform clinical practice and inspire health care professionals to identify patients who would welcome a dialogue about illness-related existential struggles for the benefit of their health.

为了探讨慢性疼痛或多发性硬化症患者的生存挑战，我们进行了23次半结构化患者访谈，并结合SørenKierkegaard进行了解释性，现象学分析。病人将自己的病视为“命运的征兆”，这使他们感到绝望，并为寻找自己，自己以及在新的生活环境中如何与自己建立联系而进行了艰巨的斗争。成为自我是一种长期的生存过程，是通过关系，自然，灵性或上帝之类的“另一者”综合必需品和可能性的存在极而实现的。应对生存挑战的不同方法被确定为审美，伦理和宗教生活领域的主观选择。Kierkegaardian关系自我和生活领域作为多种可能性，对于理解患者的生存挑战以及当疾病从根本上改变生活时寻找与自己的新关系的复杂过程非常有价值。要解决生存斗争，似乎必须在生活中保持主观立场，并与比自己更大的事物保持联系。这些发现可以为临床实践提供参考，并可以启发医疗保健专业人员确定愿意欢迎有关疾病相关生存斗争的对话以谋求健康的患者。要解决生存斗争，似乎必须在生活中保持主观立场，并与比自己更大的事物保持联系。这些发现可以为临床实践提供参考，并可以启发医疗保健专业人员确定愿意欢迎有关疾病相关生存斗争的对话以谋求健康的患者。要解决生存斗争，似乎必须在生活中保持主观立场，并与比自己更大的事物保持联系。这些发现可以为临床实践提供参考，并可以启发医疗保健专业人员确定愿意欢迎有关疾病相关生存斗争的对话以谋求健康的患者。