Invisible illnesses like endometriosis, Lyme disease, and long Covid typically present as a constellation of vague, sometimes intermittent symptoms that include pain, chronic fatigue, and brain fog. As different as these conditions are from each other, they are also similar in how misunderstood they are in the medical community. Drawing on cultural history and interviews with scientists, policymakers, and activists (many of whom suffer from chronic conditions), Mendenhall argues for transforming the health care system by recognizing the experiences of complex patients as \u201clegitimate sources of knowledge.\u201d A large part of the problem comes from the fact that complex patients and doctors \u201cspeak different languages\u201d and do not understand each other. Patients may feel unseen by clinicians who lean into authoritative discourse and a \u201cone size fits all\u201d approach to diagnosis, while clinicians may not fully comprehend the patient\u2019s (often very individualized) experiences. In discussing endometriosis, for example, the author shows how female complaints get labeled\u2014and ultimately dismissed\u2014as functional neurological disorder (FND), an updated version of the Hippocratic notion of hysteria or \u201cwandering uterus\u201d syndrome. She argues that symptoms for this and other chronic ailments must be considered in context of what she terms a patient\u2019s \u201cbodymind,\u201d since body and mind, along with the patient\u2019s environment, are \u201cdeeply integrated.\u201d Only then can the chronically ill begin to more successfully navigate their conditions and remake their lives in more substantive ways. Elegantly written and rigorously researched, Mendenhall\u2019s book offers a much-need challenge to a monolithic health care system to respond in more humane and holistic ways to the suffering of those facing complicated, long-term health issues.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Invisible illnesses like endometriosis, Lyme disease, and long Covid typically present as a constellation of vague, sometimes intermittent symptoms that include pain, chronic fatigue, and brain fog. As different as these conditions are from each other, they are also similar in how misunderstood they are in the medical community. Drawing on cultural history and interviews […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5351"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}