Crohn’s disease—which was my ultimate diagnosis—is the immune system’s failure to recognize the presence of food and stool in the intestines as normal. The disease tricks the immune system into thinking these essential entities are bad. Attempting to protect the person from the food and stool the body must process in order to survive, the immune system attacks the intestines, making itself the thing that the person really needs protection from (in the same way that those who use shame to “protect” people from natural aspects of themselves, such as their sexuality,
