Theme
7:10am July 14, 2013

➸ In today's society, chronic illness is viewed as a personal failing

I lost the defining characteristics of the first 50 years of my life. Now I’m weak, frail, and vulnerable.

“ In our competitive society, chronic infirmity or illness is viewed as a personal failing rather than the random stroke of fate that it is. If my pain and disability were temporary, I would get sympathy and accommodation, but incurable suffering makes most people uncomfortable. They become impatient and distant, and I detect an undercurrent of belief that I must have done something to deserve this – something they can avoid doing.”

Yes. Basically in many Christian societies illness used to be seen as evidence of religious sin. Now it’s seen as evidence of a different kind of moral sin. People think if you eat right and exercise you’ll be healthy. When those are only two minor factors out of zillions in your health. And there’s also this weird idea (called the Just World Hypothesis, I think) that bad things only happen to people who deserve it.

I get a combination of angry and sympathetic when I read some posts. The ones that go “I did everything right, I’m so good, I’ve always been so good. What did I do too deserve my illness?”

Sympathetic because we all live in a society that is telling us constantly that if bad things happen to us, especially health problems, we must’ve done something to deserve it.

Angry because… And who would deserve it? Does that mean the rest of us sick people just did something wrong or failed to do something right? And do people really want to spread around the idea the that illness should only happen to deserving people? That some people do deserve it? That the question “why me?” even makes sense, when most illness is random stuff we can’t control?

And then I don’t even know what to feel like.