The third anthropological approach to be discussed is the Experiential approach. Each and every person experiences an illness differently, and each posses rights and responsibilities as they take on the sick role. One of the most relieving feeling for a person afflicted with an illness is to tell their story. It acts as an outlet and allows them to relate with others that are going through the illness as well and gives others a better understanding of what they are enduring. These personal stories about illness are known as illness narratives and there are three major types that were identified in week 4's lecture; restitution, chaos, and quest. Restitution narratives are about how someone is overcoming and illness and restoring their health, in general these are temporary illnesses. Chaos narratives on the other hand generally coincide with degenerative or chronic disorders. The story is about the battle that they have with their illness and how they are attempting to gain control over their life despite the illness. Quest narratives are my personal favorite, generally they are stories about the long course of an illness such as cancer. They often times talk about how they have grown and improved themselves through overcoming the illness.
Lauren's Story...
The picture above is my oldest sister Lauren, mentioned in the introduction of this web page, and what follows is her story about living with Generalized Anxiety Disorder. I would classify her illness narrative as a restitution story, even though GAD is a chronic disorder, as she is now a fully functional sister, fiancé, ultra sound technician and so much more.
1. Orientation: Lauren's story was about my oldest sister Lauren and how at the age of 14 she began experiencing severe anxiety and panic attacks, she explained how much it affected her relationships and other aspects of her life. in 1998 she was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder. 2. Complicating Action: Lauren's severe anxiety attacks began affecting her ability to sleep at night or attend school. There were many times when the entire family would have to wake up in the middle of the night to comfort her through these episodes. Her state of constant worry also put stress on her relationships with her friends and family. I can remember many times where she would pass up on opportunities to hang out with friends because she was having panic attacks about death and dying, and a lot of people could not relate to her unexplainable worry. |
3. Evaluation: By Lauren telling her story to our family and her friend allowed us to better understand what she was going through. My grandmother who also was diagnosed with GAD had many comforting tips to share with her as well. I feel like Lauren's illness narrative was an important part of her accepting and overcoming her disorder.
4. Resolution: Lauren was able to get on medication for GAD, such as Xanax which helped her sleep at night. WIth fewer episodes she was able to achieve her ultimate goal of living a normal life; She attended Baker College where she met her best friend and graduated as an ultra sound technician, and later was introduced to her current fiancé. 5. Coda: Although Lauren was faced with the challenge of living with GAD, she was able to tell her story, get help, and overcome her fears going on to lead a normal life which was her ultimate goal. Lauren's story is a prime example of a restitution illness narrative. |