Although chronic illness and mental health are both forms of sickness, that is where one may think the similarities end. However, chronic illness and mental health are often associated as those with chronic illness may be struggling not only with keeping their body functioning, but their mind as well. To start from the beginning, let’s begin with how and when chronic illness developed and what exactly it is. Chronic illness began to emerge in high numbers in the early to middle 1900s. This is mainly due to the invention and spread of vaccines. As Laurie Edwards puts it in her book In the Kingdom of the Sick, “Enough people did not die or become crippled and incapacitated from infectious disease that they began living long enough to acquire and suffer from chronic conditions.” With the rise of vaccinations and the loss of apprehension against the government to receive them, people were living longer. Therefore, they could stay alive long enough to get sick. In the society we live in now, where we value those with the perfect body and the perfect grades with the perfect family, chronic illness doesn’t fit in. Those with chronic illness such as CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) and PCD (primary ciliary dyskinesia) may not fit this high, high standard. This is not to say that those with chronic illnesses can’t do anything. Often, those diseases can be treated to a certain extent and can maintain some semblance of normal. But there are those that cannot. I am talking about those who have no diagnosis or no known treatment. If they cannot be treated, then it is possible that they might not be able to live a stable life. These are the ones mainly having struggles with their mental health. As mentioned in Edwards book, they often feel like society doesn’t think that they are doing enough for themselves- not working out enough, not eating healthy enough, not living as much. This can be really harmful to hear, especially to those who wish they could be doing those things, but their illness prevents it. These people may be able to control their illness on some teeny tiny level (obviously, it is better for the body to eat healthy than to eat junk), but eating healthy will not solve all their problems. Sometimes if a patient’s diagnosis has not been reached yet, it can cause severe depression and/or a sense of helplessness. These people are the ones whose chronic illness not only needs to be treated, but their mental health concerns as well.
SOURCE:
Edwards, Laurie. In the Kingdom of the Sick: A Social History of Chronic Illness in America. Bloomsbury, 2014.
Out of My Mind 