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Therapy for bitterness 'could boost physical health'

Tuesday 9th August 2011

Occupational therapy to combat people's bitter feelings to other individuals could be key to a patient's physical health.

The relationship between failure, bitterness and quality of life has been assessed by researchers at Concordia University, who found that persistent negative feelings towards others can make a person physically ill.

Lead researcher Carsten Wrosch suggests that in the worst cases bitterness that is harboured for a long time could lead to patterns of biological dysregulation.

"In order to deal with bitter emotions there may need to be something else required to enable a person to overcome the negative emotion - that something is forgiveness," he explained.

In 2003, Berlin Free University head of psychiatry Michael Linden suggested that bitterness should be recognised as a mental illness.

He argued that bitterness be called post-traumatic embitterment disorder, suggesting that giving the condition a name would ensure that sufferers receive the therapeutic treatment they need.

Written by Megan Smith