The effectiveness of treatment based on acceptance and commitment on emotional self-awareness, emotional dyslexia and pain intensity in girls suffering from menstrual pain

Menstrual pain syndrome appears as a clinical disease with the occurrence of physical and mental cycles unrelated to any natural disease during the five days before menstruation. This research was conducted with the aim of the effectiveness of treatment based on acceptance and commitment on emotional self-awareness, emotional dyslexia and pain intensity in girls suffering from menstrual pain.

The present study was a semi-experimental study with a pre-test-post-test design and a control group. The statistical population of the research was all female students in the second year of high school in Mashhad in the academic year of 2022-2023, who were selected by cluster sampling of 30 people and randomly placed in two experimental and control groups (15 people in each group). The experimental group received commitment and acceptance therapy during 8 sessions of 90 minutes, but the control group did not receive any intervention. The research tools were Riff's emotional self-awareness questionnaire (2008), Toronto's emotional dyslexia (1994) and menstrual pain intensity scale. The research data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance test.

The findings showed that treatment based on acceptance and commitment has a significant effect on emotional self-awareness, emotional dyslexia and pain intensity in girls suffering from menstrual pain (p<0.05). In fact, treatment based on acceptance and commitment increases emotional self-awareness and reduces emotional ataxia and pain intensity in girls suffering from menstrual pain.

According to the findings, it can be concluded that the treatment based on acceptance and commitment teaches girls how to experience thoughts, feelings and emotions without judgment and emotional disturbance in the mind. This process, by helping the therapist to understand the physical feelings, the ability to recognize and separate emotions, leads to a reduction in the intensity of menstrual pain.