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The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness

Book by Meghan O'Rourke · 3 quotes · Autoimmune Disease, Chronic Illness, Health

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The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness Quotes

“The medical uncertainty compounds patients' own uncertainty. Because my unwellness did not take the form of a disease I understood, with a clear-cut list of symptoms and a course of treatment, even I at times interpreted it as a series of signs about my very existence. Initially, the illness seemed to be a condition that signified something deeply wrong with me⁠—illness as a kind of semaphore. Without answers, at my most desperate, I came to feel (in some unarticulated way) that if I could just tell the right story about what was happening, I could make myself better. If only I could figure out what the story was, like the child in a fantasy novel who must discover her secret name, I could become myself again. It took years before I realized that the illness was not just my own; the silence around suffering was our society's pathology.”

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Book:The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness
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