Past studies have revealed a dizzying array of coping techniques employed by persons living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Unfortunately, research has provided little insight into when and why individuals adopt or abandon particular coping strategies. Using a retrospective narrative approach, we explored how participants made sense of changes in their approach to coping over time. Shifts in coping strategies were associated with particular illness experiences that wrought new understandings of IBD and novel identity challenges. They followed a common processual form and were marked by a movement away from techniques of purification, normalization, and banalization toward the development of a more communicative body. This was accompanied by notable shifts in identity work. Notably, participants moved from a preoccupation with maintaining continuity and sameness to permitting their extraordinary bodies to occupy a place in their public and personal identities. Implications of this process for theory and practice are discussed.

过去的研究揭示了炎症性肠病 (IBD) 患者所采用的一系列令人眼花缭乱的应对技术。不幸的是，研究几乎没有提供关于个人何时以及为何采用或放弃特定应对策略的见解。使用回顾性叙述方法，我们探索了参与者如何理解他们应对方法的变化。应对策略的转变与特定的疾病经历有关，这些经历使人们对 IBD 和新的身份挑战有了新的理解。他们遵循一种共同的过程形式，并以一种远离净化、正常化和平庸化技术的运动为标志，转向发展更具交流性的身体。这伴随着身份工作的显着转变。尤其，参与者从专注于保持连续性和相同性转变为允许他们非凡的身体在他们的公共和个人身份中占据一席之地。讨论了这一过程对理论和实践的影响。