Charmaz presents us the “loss of self” as a key form of suffering in chronically ill persons. She states that chronic diseases lead to restricted lives, experiences of social isolation, feeling discredited and that chronic diseases make ill persons believe that they are burdening others. These factors can further cause stigmatization and loss of self-esteem and identity.
What I found very applicable is that many chronically ill persons are treated within an acute-illness-framework.
I experienced that in medical practice time for the treatment of chronically ill patients can be very limited. For instance in Austria GPs only get paid for every fifth consultation of the same patient. A chronically ill patient can therefore easily be seen as an inconvenient patient!
Watching the RA-videos I noticed the statements of two women who said that they felt they did the right thing in telling their families and close friends about their disease although having many doubts before. Charmaz also mentions the importance of social integration in her analysis and I think these two women show a way of fighting social isolation, by accepting help from people close to them. However many patients do not have such a social integration and can easily become isolated (i.e. through treatment at home).
I do believe though that it is also important to take the individual disease type, symptoms and side effects into account and not only see disability, caused by a chronic illness, as a purely social construct.
