Experiencing illness is a social, psychological process in which the sick person learns new definitions of herself or himself and shapes her or his way of life, according to the new facts.
After reading the paper and watching the videos about the impact of the diagnosis, it is very interesting that most of the people found it really hard to cope with the diagnosis of RA. As a man said, his first reaction was that his life has come to a sudden halt, literally. It is, also, worth noting when a man said that after so many years, he must admit that he is not sure even now that he has this thing for life. So, it is obvious that the first stage of the denial is very important.
Something else I want to point out is the patients' difficulty in understanding the RA as an autoimmune disease. They cannot understand that they are fit, healthy and for an unknown reason their immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys healthy body issues. That's why we see most of the people believe that RA is “something grannies got”.
As Charmaz said suffering undermines the self, but suffering can be used as a path to knowledge and self- discovery.
