The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness

by Meghan O'Rourke

“gradually and then suddenly.”

Contrary to popular belief, chronic illness can start slowly, creeping up from behind. The cause is not always one dramatic event.

I had been intermittently unwell since I graduated from college in 1997 and now was getting steadily worse, like a person who can’t swim moving step by step into deep water.

whose illnesses are poorly understood,

live with illness,

even if I could not ov...

I wanted recognition of the reality of ...

This is even more difficult for invisible illnesses.

long COVID.

These illnesses are, of course, distinct from one another. But they are often characterized by dysregulation of the immune system and/or the nervous system, which are powerfully intertwined in our bodies.

if you have one of these illnesses, you may be more likely to have others.

can be triggered by multiple causes, including the body’s response to infections.

autoimmune

diseases are rising at what scientists call “...

such illnesses were poorly studied and rarely discussed—and often seen as manifestations of underlying mental illness.

They tend to affect women more commonly as well, and women are not always taken seriously in healthcare as it is.

microbiome

how variable the human response to infection can be,

viruses and bacteria) can collide

with an individual’s biology to unleash a host of perplexing afte...

whose symptoms roam the body but who have what appear to be normal test results.

Same here. The tests delegitimize my condition to doctors.

illnesses we don’t understand are frequently viewed as manifestations of inner states.

If medicine can’t see or name the problem, it can neither study it nor treat it.

My story does not progress in an orderly fashion, because the course of my illness did not; it circled and jumped and skipped. I got sick and better, sick and better.

Ehlers-Danlos syndrome—one

A huge part of these illnesses is uncertainty: medical, health, knowledge

Indeed, this book is about living with, rather than eradicating or defeating, a disease: a story about letting go of the American ethos of overcoming

radical interconnection.

Our bodies are always in communication

with other ...

porousness

personal interactions, regulation of food and chemicals, the absence of universal health care, systemic racism, poverty, trauma,