Kathy Charmaz highlighted several points in her article regarding the effects of chronic illness, which she described as “loss of self”...she talks about four major consequences such as restricted lives, social isolation, being discredited and burdening others which ultimately results in to lose self identity, family strain, stigma even financial crisis...
The author also talks about how social psychological conditions rather than physical discomfort contribute to chronic illness. For example- how the diabetic old lady was mortified with her amputated left leg by a young girl in a departmental store. The whole incident was very disturbing for that old lady as well as raised a number of questions that who she was in relation to others. Here her psychological distress almost minimized her physical pain.
Another example was where a middle age woman with RA failed to cope with her work and suffered from severe depression with a feeling of uselessness and hopelessness which follows the sense of being discredited and becoming a burden.
On the other hand, there were few patients who struggled with the illness also with the society for social acceptance. For example the young girl with RA who reported against the teacher who underestimated her for a particular task.
The initial language of suffering is almost similar nearly in all cases, however, patients with chronic illness gradually goes through the period of “self discovery” and tries to overcome the fact that life is not the same.
In a nut shell, the psychosocial effects of chronic illness causes more damage to the individual. And the society or the community plays a vital role in the improvement of the patient. The earlier the person gets support from the surrounding the sooner he/she shows improvement and becomes hopeful for a new start.
