On Disease

Greetings to my brand new -itis.
In which John discusses illness, and his experiences with it, and the way we imagine disease.
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[@cmm6p]

How much better would our lives, our health and well-being be, worldwide, if we stopped attributing illness to morality? It’s stunning.

[@danman3163]

Well I think that is largely the case, because of a lack of education. Like did you know that all primates when put in a social system (like a state or country) with high income-inequality, experience higher levels of chronic stress, which cause the hunger for refined carbs to go up, which cause obesity? This is quite well documented across several scientific disciplines. And this is partly why the US has a obesity epidemic, but Japan doesn't. Most people don't know about this mechanism though, and its much easier to assume that people are overweight, because they lack character or intelligence, and give in to a crap lifestyle (Which is ALSO a part of the problem).

[@NawidN]

It's immoral to unfairly distribute health care. Your level of suffering is, at some point, someone else's moral choice.

[@KatharineOsborne]

This is true of work as well. What type of work you do and how much you do is wrapped up in morality but does not give room for things like disability, mental health, non-paying work (especially care work), or the pursuit of self-actualisation and joy. And we’re all stressed out about it.

[@shiny_x3]

I think attributing *anything* to morality is a bit daft. Is most violence and crime really caused by "bad people" or by trauma, desperation, and inadequate social systems that perpetuate both? "Badness" has about as much explanatory power as "demon possession".

[@tokiomitohsaka7770]

Do people actually do that? I have never heard of someone being called a bad person because they get cancer.

[@user-dt4yj5kz5u]

"Long story short I have a few problems" is an excellent title for a memoir

[@myphone-ph4hh]

Lol

[@sexyscientist]

But what about "more light than heat"?

[@twojuiceman]

I would like "I'm Quite Earnest"

[@untappedinkwell]

@@sexyscientist +++

[@Platypi007]

It would also be a great first line.

[@joellea-b.5519]

"Disability is everywhere in history, once you begin to look for it, but conspicuously absent in the histories we write." Baynton, Disability & the Justification of Inequality in America

[@jhonklan3794]

Its not really absent from history though. Everyone knows FDR was wheelchair bound in his youth.

[@Clara-jd3kj]

As a chronically ill person, the lack of literature and art about disease can make me feel removed from humanity. Sickness is so fundamental to my life, and I often feel alone in that because "universal" stories about the human condition don't tend to mention it. This video made me realize how absurd that is considering how human and common it is to be sick. Thank you for this video and for your great writing about illness and pain in The Anthropocene Reviewed!

[@leslieelizabeth3024]

I was recently diagnosed and one of the things I bought a book for, it's one of the few that explain it as a whole. But it's sssoooo painfully medical terminology dense. It look forever to read because I looked up EVERYTHING. But it's worth it

[@EvanLuke3]

I too have a chronic disease, Lyme Disease. For the past 12 years it has been my life. I can say that I understand your suffering. My extended family recently went to Walt Disney World, in August and I just could not go. Disney in August? Actually I don’t know how a healthy person can stand the heat. But, me there was no way. When you are sick you miss out, it is just a fact of life. I am here for you. There is much that I have learned in the 12 years I have been sick. Most of all it has been to be kind to people because you never know what they are dealing with. I hope your day and this upcoming weekend is good to you. Much love to you!❤️

[@Noah-yj9uu]

illnesses being named for the body’s response to them is a fascinating thing i’ve never thought about. we really can never step out of the way we physically experience the world through our bodies.

[@wearwolf2500]

I've always found it interesting that a lot of the symptoms of illness are from ourselves. Fever and coughing are your body trying to kill and get rid of bad things. Joint pain is the result of having a bunch of white blood cells accumulating in places.

[@tomisaacson2762]

It's not true of illnesses in general. He's talking about "itis"es. Diseases are often named after the causative organism (eg cholera, tuberculosis, histoplasmosis). They're often named after a particularly prominent/unique sign or symptom (eg whooping cough, smallpox, yellow fever). Cancers are usually named by the cell type of origin or the microscopic findings, but colloquially people often just say "[location of tumor] cancer". Cancers often cause a lot of inflammation, but it's not referred to as an "itis". Then there are all those diseases named after people. "itis" is the suffix because the symptoms (pain, swelling, redness) come from the inflammatory response and reducing the inflammatory response reduces the symptoms, even if the area is teeming with bacteria. Also, stuff like orbital cellulitis can be caused by microbes other than staph. aureus. It can be caused by microbes other than bacteria. But regardless of the causative organism, the symptoms will pretty much be the same and can be temporarily relieved by reducing the inflammatory response. Makes sense to name it with "itis". It's a useful catch all term, because often there are no known causative microbes for an "itis". Osteoarthritis, for example, can have pain, swelling, and redness, but is not an infection. Eosinophilic esophagitis is another example. Doesn't contradict his point about social determinants of health, but I couldn't help but be nitpicky.

[@Ryan-si6qu]

Like Tom said, i think its partly just because its easier to diagnose symptoms than causes and name diseases through that. Diseases with varied symptoms can be hard to link and symptoms with many causes can be hard to separate but we start with the symptoms - you go to the doctor for chest pain or eye swelling, etc rather than starting with what pathogen caused it

[@jhonklan3794]

This is why writers should not be commenting on medical nomenclature. We name it after the bodies response because the body response is what kills you.

[@lb3659]

@@jhonklan3794 I actually love the idea of someone like John Green in all his talent trying to make sense of something that might be outside of his specialty. It highlights where communication breaks down and the point he comes to after discussing the nomenclature is a good point. It doesn't matter how he comes to it. We as a society do see illness as a moral failure and a personal responsibility and that is a problem.

[@benaddictforlife]

As a wheelchair user with cerebral palsy, the "attributing Illness to a failure of ones body"rings so incredibly true. While I myself and me family don't see myself as "lacking" anything due to my disability, the outer world really really does hammer this home, especially in dating. Thanks for putting it into words so adequately.

[@rainthedaymusic]

The lack of representation is especially true of chronic illnesses. Hanna Bervoets, a Dutch chronically ill novellist, finds the explanation for this lack in the story arch. Many disease-themed stories start with becoming ill and move towards either getting better, or dying. But chronic illness.. just doesn’t lend itself for those type of story archs, since the condition doesn’t change much through time. But Hanna Bervoets wrote a beautiful novel about chronic illness, the title of which roughly translates to Welcome to the Realm of the Sick. The book switches between conventional storytelling and a Greek-style epic journey, in which the protagonist explores this strange new world with a new, unfamiliar set of rules. In the end, the main story arch (in my experience) was finding acceptance in his new circumstances, and finding the beginnings of joy again in a disabled life. As you can maybe tell, I'm pretty obsessed with this book because it's helped me a lot with acknowledging and accepting my own being disabled. I really wish there was an English translation of it.

[@nachtegaelw5389]

Thanks for sharing! I got really excited to read this until your last sentence…but maybe someday!

[@SarahDavisSings]

Do we know the agent/publisher for that author? Because if enough of us ask, they'll think there's a market.

[@xoxoizzie365]

Living as a disabled person during this season of the pandemic has brought on a hopelessness that I don't think I ever could have imagined. Watching the world actively choose to ignore the pandemic, the steps they can take to mitigate it, and the isolation it has forced many disabled people into is heartbreaking. But as a young person living with disability, I am not allowed to stop caring. I have to protect my body because I don't know if I'll be able to sustain myself with the longterm impacts of covid. I know that I am not alone in this hopelessness, I really desperately want to find community again. But I feel like all of my communities have left me behind, because they are tired of dealing with this disease, and in some ways, me.

[@meghan879]

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[@HolaMindy]

The Try Guys channel recently published a video specifically on this very problem. Zach talked about his own disability and interviewed several disabled rights activists about how the pandemic has impacted them and how the world has largely ignored the profound impact on disabled people. I hope maybe it could at least help you feel less alone.

[@k2lar]

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[@pawz3016]

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[@fernandoavila3929]

How do you cook a lemon?

[@abbytheaardvark]

I'm a 27 year old, and I frequently feel very hypochondriacal because I've always had mild physical health issues, so having someone who talks openly about illness related things has really helped me feel more normal - I then had a stroke 2 weeks ago, and you really do start to question why we DON'T discuss illness more. Maybe people are afraid of illness because of the symptoms they can see up close in people, whereas war is so distant and obscure, and we're told that people fighting are heroes and that they're brave and so on, which I don't doubt, but we treat soldiers one way and hold cancer patients at arms length, as if we're going to get sick by being in the vicinity of them. I don't know where I was taking that point but it's interesting regardless - you talk about illness and human built systems, which really caught me, because the stroke I had was literally caused by the stress of life happening, and not by bacteria. Again I don't know where my point was going (again, had a stroke, brain says no to making sense), but I guess I'm saying thanks for the video, John!

[@thenopedetective]

And on the other side, compare people with cancer to soldiers like they have a choice and should be praised for still being alive, or "disability porn" where people for accomplishing great or small tasks are held up as "you should do this too because this person with no legs did this" when 1. Not everyone with disabilities can be an athlete, that does not mean they are less deserving of respect and attention, 2. There's always an under (or overt) tone of "if I were you I'd just give up"... Like illness is a choice and people don't find ways to cope and live fulfilling lives with the hand they're dealt.

[@tarttooth6022]

I'm so sorry for your difficult experiences. You matter, even when society doesn't treat you as such. Thanks for sharing.

[@Ami-ls4vs]

“We have been invited to a very strange party where you get to have a consciousness but it’s made out of meat.” May be my new favorite quote of yours

[@crimeny]

I agree, that one's gonna stay with me for a while.

[@ElanLift]

Must watch: "Made out of Meat"

[@crimeny]

@@casualevils Oh this is excellent

[@AdaSoto]

Can someone put this into a cross stitch pattern for me? Maybe over a picture of a brain?

[@azdaze227]

Same here, that was amazing

[@lockedwhisper5433]

As someone with a few chronic illnesses, I really appreciate this, especially your conclusion. Adjusting our narrative to the collective is meaningful and necessary - I'm really tired of fighting to heal while being told I'm inadequate for being ill/that it's entirely my fault. When it comes to health and illness, I find it fascinating that the first social instinct of someone's illness is to blame it entirely on the choices of the ill, rather than the collective forces of societal impact and (like you said) simply having a human body. Thank you for adding insight and directing attention to this subject!!

[@paigeryan476]

I think that instinct to blame the illness on the ill can be seen as a sort of self-preservation and reassurance. If the illness is the fault of the person who has it, then it’s something that can be avoided. That’s a lot easier to accept than coming to terms with the fact that you or your loved ones could get sick or die because of factors outside your control. Not saying it’s right, but I find it helpful to think about when I wonder why people might respond that way.

[@myladycasagrande863]

@@paigeryan476 there's also a very human desire for life to make sense, with a causal narrative. Like "if a person has condition X, it's because they did (or didn't do) action Y". When faced with diseases that don't make logical sense, we still try to find a cause, with the easiest one being that the illness is somehow the fault of the sick person.

[@leslieelizabeth3024]

Yeah cause you know it's so fun having a body that you literally have no control over no matter what you do. It's totally entirely a choice yeah (this is sarcasm, I'm super autoimmune issued up)

[@nanszoo3092]

​@@leslieelizabeth3024 This is how I also feel about my physical responses to whatever is going on in my body .... (after 30 years of not really being diagnosed satisfactorily). I have settled on responding that "I don't know, I just live here." It is an extremely lonely existence when so many things that regular people do without thinking can potentially cause me extreme pain or dysfunction to the point where I could be laid up for hours, days or weeks. And it is impossible to explain to almost everyone I know. The only people who get it are my youngest child and two other people who once were stuck in cars with me when I could not stop vomiting due to the pain I was experiencing. I know a lot more than three people - none of the others really get it. Not only do we need to deal with disease, illness, or dysfunction, but we also have to constantly justify these things. It's exhausting.

[@leslieelizabeth3024]

@@nanszoo3092 I'm also a pain vomiter, it's so fun. It's really hard to explain it (the health issue symptoms) some times, and some people don't want to try to understand either. So then they get angry? What do they have to be angry about lol we're the ones that should be angry, but we just have to roll with it. I've got a couple close friends that don't fully get it, but they don't treat me differently or look down on when I'm not physically able to do something. But it's hard when family doesn't. It's very isolating in your own home sometimes. I think I've just hit some kinda bitter reluctance stage in my acceptance. I love cooking and food, but I just had to cut out and stop eating major parts of my regular diet. Overwhelming isn't even a word for it anymore lol

[@sswiad10]

I cherish my signed copy. Thank you for your sacrifice, John.

[@averycockburn31]

This video deserves many rewatches. The fact literature doesn't address disease as much as it should may be a reflection of writers' fear of death and therefore disease AND/OR a society-level ableism that makes publishers and authors believe that readers don't want stories about sick people. Your books are a powerful testament to the contrary. ETA: Sorry about the arthritis! I find dictation/Mac Voice Control helps hugely on the worst days.

[@diogoe.s.t.2293]

I think it isn't ableism or any explicit attempt to discriminate disabled people, it's just people being ignorant and not knowing better. Racism and sexism were the norm in the past, and until the 18th century it was generally accepted by all members of societies around the world.

[@jenniestevens1166]

@@diogoe.s.t.2293 Ignorant ableism (racism, sexism, etc.) is still ableism. I would argue more people have been hurt by ignorance than malice. The malice is more obvious and absolutely needs to be rooted out-but generally, the harm comes when malice creates the system and ignorance perpetuates it.

[@Razmatini]

yeah, i agree. we can't talk about our response to disease without considering how systemic ableism affects our views on disease.

[@guido9861]

John couldn't make a video about disease interesting, he had to make a video in which character Dizzyz was unfairly treated by the system and misunderstood with appeals to emotion. Disease is boring, although extremely important.

[@darthtace]

I disagree on both fronts I think. In regards to point 1, mortality is hardly shied away from in media (though American media has a tendency to treat it with kids' gloves compared to the rest of the world). In regards to point 2, disability is borderline-fetishized by media (American in particular, again). Disease is rarely covered, but mental health and physical disability as forms of tribulation are so commonplace as to be banal. Try any of the TV Tropes pages on disability (special mention to "Inspirationally Disabled"), and I think you'll agree that ableism is a selling point for media, not something to avoid. (Doing disability WELL is an entirely different matter.) Generally, I think the lack of coverage of disease is simple: it's boring. Telling a story about disease isn't a story that can have a happy ending; it can merely have a neutral ending or bad one. Sure, sure, you can end up better off than before you had a disease due to serendipity, but disease itself almost always leaves you worse off than before. That's both predictable and nihilistic. Combine that with its near-ubiquity and general lack of fairness when it comes to selecting targets, and, honestly, can you blame anyone for not wanting to consume media based on it? Disease, by its very nature, will always be a struggle that cannot be overcome, merely mitigated, and that's a reality that doesn't sell well.

[@Amberthyme]

Disease is something that makes people feel vulnerable. When you “get sick” you feel a lack of agency. Love and war at least feel like you have some kind of control.

[@nate.draws.things]

Disease is also closely associated with death (bc of course it is), and people have feared death for as long as there's been people. So we just avoid talking about either, unfortunately.

[@JustinAlexanderBell]

I don't know about you but I don't imagine people feel a sense of control in war.

[@Richard_Jones]

@@JustinAlexanderBell Never mind in love.

[@asherujudo7383]

Yeah. People play video games about war and they actively pursue love, no matter how treacherous it can be. But disease is different. No one wants to play cancer on their xbox and no one goes out looking for AIDS. These are things people don't even like to think about and just pray they never have to.

[@Holobrine]

@@asherujudo7383 That’s actually worth breaking down though, by all accounts war should be on par with disease in terms of how much death it causes, and how little choice you actually have. War should make us feel helpless in the face of likely death. And yet, society glorifies militaristic conquest and stamina, while disease is unexplored. Why is that? I’d say it’s because society has figured out that war is a collective effort; we win or lose together. We all intuitively understand that, and the way we treat war reflects that. War stories maintain the social fabric necessary for collective defense. But society has not yet learned this about disease and illness. We don’t intuitively understand that we win or lose against illnesses together, and we don’t have disease stories to maintain a social fabric to collectively fight disease.

[@mcgheebentle1958]

On writing about illness: I cannot recommend enough the writings and short stories of Flannery O’Connor. She was a foremost author of the Southern Gothic genre. Living in Georgia in the 40s and 50s, she also had several chronic disabilities that she eventually needed to live full time dependent on her mother and eventually succumbed to her illnesses. She makes it a point to make all of her protagonists “freaks” (her own word). They have disabilities or infirmities or are otherwise handicapped. The way she writes about these characters is sometimes almost painfully real and intensely “earthy” and people-focused. She was also a Catholic, and most of her stories involve an interesting “proto-magical-realism” (my wording). Check her out. I think everyone should read her.

[@MailleGrace]

Thanks for the recommendation 😀 I'm going to the library 🙂

[@thecuriositas385]

The human need to ascribe fault to illness has always fascinated me in a, "Oh look at the pathetic little humans trying to convince themselves that the universe is not indifferent & trying to force the world to make sense to them out of a cripling fear & anxiety" sort of way. Illness doesn't care how you got them, they just are. They are the result of evolutionary pressures which molded them into multiplying via the route of least resistance, and that's all. And I feel that humans do this to try and soothe a need to feel safe & shield themselves from the reality that this world doesn't care what you do it just is. "If I don't do X or y or z then I will be safe and those people who do get sick well that was their own fault so I don't have to spend the mental energy to try and help them or feel the guilt at choosing not to help them." It is all a coping mechanism to comfort us from the cold reality that we are just meat trying to keep existing & fight off those organisms which would use our bodies to further their own existences. Humans want that comfort so bad, it turns us into monsters sometimes.

[@Seth9809]

I think it was like 6 years ago when I truly saw how common it was for humans to be like crabs in a boiling pot. It was four years ago when I learned whole rooms of people could vote for something none of them wanted, because everyone just assumed everyone else but them wanted the thing.

[@patrickdallaire5972]

Very interesting and as someone who has been through acute ilnesses and continues to suffer from chronic ones, I totally agree. I went to catholic school as a child and I remember never really buying that going through cancer from 3 to 5 - and being ostracized by other kids because of it - was part of a "good and flawless divine plan". In hindsight, this idea is probably an example how many people reject the cold nature of reality. As Camus said about religion and other leaps of faith that deny the unfeeling and unintelligible universe, it's a philosophical suicide.

[@a.harrington1634]

As someone who is recovering from a surgery for a treatable -itis, and who got diagnosed with a lifelong and chronic -itis in their 30s, I regularly get asked how I didn't know something was wrong before either was found. I had no words to explain beyond "That's how my body is, I didn't know it should be acting differently." Expecting people to know their body isn't "acting normal" when they have no other experience is such an issue in the way we treat illness.

[@leslieelizabeth3024]

Hello, I'm a recently diagnosed person. I get that. Like sorry I didn't know this wasn't "normal". It took me reading books on what I have to realize how much wasn't normal? It's wild

[@Rinnumuru]

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[@kashiichan]

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[@artemaeus]

FOR REAL - I have Eosinophilic Esophagitis which caused me to frequently choke on food growing up. I assumed everyone choked that much bc no one seemed to pay it any mind & it was the only experience I had. I am very lucky that my doctor I started to see 7 years ago took me very seriously when I happened to mention the choking in passing.

[@BionicMilkaholic]

I'm in my 30's and have bad knee arthritis. Finally found out my knees are misaligned and my legs are different lengths. About to have surgery to fix the alignment. I bought some height adjusted shoes. I can't even explain the feeling of putting those shoes on for the first time. I went around telling everyone that I didn't know you aren't supposed to bounce when you walk, and if you shift your weight from one foot to the other while standing, both feet stay on the ground. I'm looking forward to surgery so much. I never knew things were wrong because that's all I knew. I've been thinking back, trying to figure out what were the first signs something was wrong. Now I realize, things in high school were signs. If I only knew that wasn't right and we did something about it then, I wouldn't have this bad arthritis. But how could I have known?

[@Beryllahawk]

This one hit hard, especially right now, as I'm struggling through being low income and every person in my family having medical issues - from my son's untreated ADHD to my husband's end-stage kidney disease to my own recent slide into diabetes. And every one of us is getting treated like we're criminals, as if we could just up and decide not to be sick, not to need help. As if we could "just work harder" to get out of the situation we find ourselves in. It's ludicrous that the collective choices around us have made so many lives so miserable, all in the name of one form of dogma or another.

[@Nbxx186]

I remember watching you sign TFIOS all those years ago and thinking surely this is gonna lead to some issue but then I was selfish and wanted a signed copy😂 Does that make me complicit in the development of the Ituses?

[@Miglow]

You are complicit but only (1/250,000)% complicit.

[@anniekate76]

I watched him sign the Anthropocene Reviewed and it’s like, he used up some of his joint bends on us, and he used up some of his time on us, and he knew neither was infinite. So that was a tiny gift to each of us who got the signatures in our books. And of course in aggregate it cost him a lot but he knew time and the bends of his joint were finite. So we need to just appreciate that gift, because the thing that makes giving worthwhile is the knowledge that the recipient will enjoy it. So if we just sit here feeling guilty, we aren’t even holding up our side of the deal.

[@bekahatkins1545]

This meant a lot to me because I’ve been collecting a lot of itises even though I’m really young and you talking about it makes me feel not alone and to not feel like a failure for my individual choices. Thank you for what you said ❤️

[@ahumanwithaface1595]

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[@mai-lo8222]

Sending love and support!

[@liamfoskett5220]

Hearing you describe, I really am surprised that disease isn't a bigger deal, even just for the angst of "itis describes our own reactions to it" I didn't realize meningitis could be so shakespearean

[@robinhahnsopran]

"There is this terrible and strange circumscriber of consciousness, and I don't think we're talking enough about it." This is why so many chronically ill people feel so alone - and why it can be so huge and important and even moving for us to find community and discover that we in fact AREN'T alone. Thank you for articulating this! ✨

[@AbbyKleverHerBrilliance]

Last year the Anthropocene reviewed was an honorable mention on a “Diseased Reads” book list from the Infectious Disease Institute-I put that list together as part of my summer job and had so much fun doing it that I changed my college major to medical anthropology!

[@AbbyKleverHerBrilliance]

I also spent the summer writing a history of tuberculosis on Ohio State’s campus, as a way to look at how non-covid diseases have impacted academic life in the past. Anyway, I love hearing other people get excited about this stuff

[@kashiichan]

I don't suppose that list is viewable somewhere? Maybe on Goodreads? Would love to check out your recs.

[@davidnewtown8774]

eosinophilic esophagitis! Shout out to the "people whose esophagus just does not do the best job transporting things from point A to point B" crew I had to go to the ER in February because a Zyrtec got stuck at the bottom of my esophagus and it was both painful and embarrassing to not be able to swallow even the spit in my mouth for 4 hours. It was actually my boyfriend's and mine anniversary, and I was really upset with myself and my body for ruining the day. But, my boyfriend drove me to the ER, they stayed with me as I drooled into a bag repeatedly, and they held my hand every 7 seconds when my chest hurt squeezing a pill that refused to budge. This video reinforced what they told me as we were sitting in that exam room, that it wasn't my fault that my body fails sometimes at doing things. It just was a thing that happens. I work on remembering that lesson every day.

[@tayhuzzahn]

This one really got to me. I've lived with emetophobia (extreme fear of vomiting) since I was about five years old, and so much of my anxiety and the often-not-helpful-and-detached-from-reality coping mechanisms I've built to respond to that fear revolve around the idea that getting sick means that I've *failed* to not do everything I possibly can to prevent myself from getting sick. Vomiting is almost always a sign of the body trying to make sure the things inside it aren't going to hurt me. It is a sign that my consciousness has somehow missed a pathogen or threat of some kind, yes, but it's also a reminder that my brain isn't the only thing preventing me from harm. My body's doing it, too. So thank you, John, for this brilliant reminder that our bodies are marvelous and know the world intimately in a way that my mind or eyes will never be able to really see or sense. That it's possible to deeply fear something and marvel at the ways it can teach us about ourselves and the world.

[@vanessalory623]

"...our bodies are marvelous and know the world intimately in a way that my mind or eyes will never be able to really see or sense" is a sentence that I will be turning over in my meat brain for quite a while.

[@tayhuzzahn]

@@vanessalory623 I'm not sure I can describe how much your response meant to me. Thank you! :)))

[@leebrady9669]

shocked and appalled to find that this video is not titled “HANK GOT A TATTOO?? (NOT CLICKBAIT)” /j

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

Clearly, John is still processing this news.

[@catalatorre4801]

I think the big thing I have learned from John is that pain- in disease, in relationships, in economic circumstances- exists because we live on an imperfect plane, but PERSISTS because of human choices. The problem of my gut being sensitive and hurt is something that was no fault of mine, but it can continue to exist due to food stocking, lack of education, or my own health choices. In essence, the thing causing the pain might very possibly stay, but the barriers isolating us from responding to that pain with sympathy and compassion need not to.

[@martagavi]

this video hits hard as someone who repeatedly had to apologize to the teacher for fainting in PE class and thought up until literally right now it was my fault for being 'weak'

[@kashiichan]

I'm so sorry you went through that.

[@ggenc]

aw damn your teacher made you apologise/ repeatedly made you do exercises that made you faint? what a bad teacher...

[@sarap9431]

I am currently sick while watching this and it makes me feel less alone to realize how common it is. Being sick makes you feel so isolated and helpless that it's nice to remember it's not an uncommon aspect of living.

[@hucklebucklin]

Get well soon!! :)

[@ronmalbert2376]

I support you and your choice to make "itis" plural any way that you see fit, but if you really want to get fancy the plural of "itis" is "itides." My favorite pluralized inflammatory condition is, of course, hepatitides. Signed, An infectious diseases pediatrician and long time fan

[@IrisGlowingBlue]

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[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

So seasonal allergies could be dubbed as "the itides of March."

[@3countylaugh]

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[@3countylaugh]

@@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721 this is my favorite thing on the internet today, thank you for it.

[@annaspykerman6196]

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[@shellh929]

My goodness this hits me so hard. I've been dealing with one illness after another for two years but the main struggle has been the shame and blame I put on myself for being sick and inconveniencing people. You're absolutely right that we don't talk enough about illness and we definitely don't talk about it in healthy ways.

[@bennyfactor]

But what about sneezing, is it a disease? Is it ever normal? Is it just a side effect of having a body? Can you just choose to never sneeze?

[@nate.draws.things]

I believe sneezing is a reflex, much like your kick reflex when you tap below your kneecap. That being the case, it is just a side effect of having a body, and it's also involuntary (most of the time at least).

[@black_rabbit_0f_inle805]

I think the blue pill suppresses symptoms but you can't operate heavy machinery

[@space_quartz]

@@nate.draws.things No, sneezing is not normal. I never sneeze

[@readingguy6041]

Due to the pandemic and having to wear a mask I've mastered the ability to will myself not to sneeze (so that I don't get snot in the mask I then have to wear) but am now worried this practice is in some way bad for me, you know, just to give voice to a different sneeze related anxiety.

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

Well, a licensed professional medical doctor said it's never normal.

[@sidneyvand8722]

I really needed this. I feel a lot of shame around my health issues. It's important to shift the internal narrative

[@zettagotbored9341]

I do find it really interesting that we mostly view and treat diseases through symptoms not causes. I was thinking about this last night while I was failing to sleep in terms of cold medicine. It gets rid of fevers and stuffy noses and headaches and coughing and drowsiness (unless it's night time on which case it just knocks you out). None of those are causes, though. Those are actually mostly ways the body is attempting to treat the actual cause of the cold. I know very little of medical things, but that feels like the norm. It honestly feels like the norm of how we handle most things in society, treating symptoms instead of causes.

[@jacobhuang6590]

It's not particularly deep. We treat symptoms when the causes are unnecessary or impossible to treat. The former involves cold medicine, like you mentioned. When you have a cold, your immune reaction usually causes more problems for you than the infection itself does. Your immune system will handle the infection. The latter includes conditions we don't have the technology to cure, only to treat and manage. When it's necessary and possible to treat causes, we do so all the time. Some of the greatest inventions in medical history are antibiotics and vaccines, both of which treat causes.

[@zettagotbored9341]

@@jacobhuang6590 that is very true. What I wanted to try to articulate but didn't think I could eloquently enough was that we also do this outside of medicine. One example is when I was working as a teacher the district I was in realized kids were doing poorly at the writing portions of standardized tests. Rather than looking for the cause of it having just been COVID and all of their veteran teachers leaving in mass partially because so many initiatives were put on them they didn't really have time to do the job they were hired for, admin just tried to add a new initiative to treat the symptom. Or like donating a bunch of money to a country that just had a massive brutal disaster to help but not acknowledging that poor health care of lack of access to clean water has been just as deadly. I don't more if that actually makes any sense, but it was more where my mind was trying to go

[@Hyrulistic]

This hits hard for me - whether from "neuro diversity" or a "preference for intellectual matters", I often tend to think of my _self_ as "a wonderful mind trapped in a sub-par physical vehicle". > My _body_ is letting me down, because my _mind_ could do so many things *_if only my body could keep up_* And when it doesn't, some how I take that as my fault for not "overcoming physical limitations".

[@Efflorescentey]

OH MY GOSH THIS IS ME. Ahhhh thank you for putting this feeling in words.

[@gabbyp4221]

I was just talking about this exact thing with my mom, who has MS. In an appointment last week her doctor said "we can't give you back anything you've lost." As if this loss is something she was responsible for, instead of a side effect of living in a body with an autoimmune disorder. Thank you for spending your time thinking and speaking about this John, it's so needed.

[@invisibleninja86]

How did you know I’m waiting on a call from my doctor with test results today? Thank you for this video. It’s very comforting in a time of big uncertainties and imagining that I must have done something to deserve this.

[@LoraK31]

"We tend to describe disease and illness as failures or insufficiencies of the body rather than literally inevitable side effects of having a body." THIS. As someone who was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease not too long ago, I viewed my body as a failure for a long time because of the fact that it can't live on its own without medication. But it makes me feel better to know that I'm not alone and that needing a little extra help to live a normal life is nothing to be ashamed about.

[@franzferdinand1782]

For the last 5 years my goal in life has been to become an epidemiologist. At first I only really was interested in viruses-- I became interested in the field just after the peak social relevance of Ebola. After a couple years I learned I could work on other plagues, public health crises like drug addiction and homelessness. I am awestruck and terrified of disease, in a primal and unavoidable way. Over the last two years particularly my family has had to wrestle with mortality and susceptibility to disease-- my dad is in his 60s and my mom is immunocompromised. I respect disease, almost. Like a god it brings us to our knees but somehow we still go about our days pretending we're fine, pretending our bodies are ours and not our cells. I think a bit more reverence (and a healthy dose of horror) for disease will help us get some perspective.

[@PoppyOxymoron]

I have never in my life encountered another author/ person who I could listen to/ read anything they say/ write like John. Like he makes everything interesting and an opportunity to learn. Thank you

[@DJK3115]

Another aspect of our strange way of dealing with illness is the way many of us try to hide or downplay its existence. We may be afraid of being fired from a job or position, or may be judged as incapable, even if the illness doesn't directly effect how well a task can be accomplished. Hipaa laws exist for protection of privacy in this regard. However, this issue can spill over into personal relationships too. Sometimes an illness just changes how others perceive you, and they don't want to see, talk, or be around you, even if the illness is not contagious. They may just be unsure of what to say or how to act around you, so they avoid contact. I believe that the more we talk about these issues as a community, the more we can improve how we behave towards one another.

[@leslieelizabeth3024]

I get you !! I have things, it sucks, but I don't fully understand why after so long some people close to me are still ?uncomfortable? I'm still me ? That's not going to change? Just what I eat, and some daily routines, that's all. The same people are also getting grumpy because they won't ask questions and won't even ask if it's okay to ask questions ? How is asking a question so offensive to the person asking it ?

[@dftbarachel]

my psoriasis turned into psoriatic arthritis last year and at 28 it’s been hard to come to terms with the part i had to play in it. there’s enough pain and shame in illness without also imagining it as a personal failure. thank you for the reminder 💜

[@Littaly]

As someone who's accumulated a long list of illnesses at a fairly young age I am deeply thankful that you're written so much and so thoughtfully about it. I will save this video for when I need it, which I anticipate will be more than a couple of times in the future.

[@xerk2945]

I have few "itises", but my disorder catalog is extensive. Which is particularly ironic, because one of them is OCD. Ya know, the disease in which many of us feel a great need to...order things.

[@Efflorescentey]

So many mental ‘disorders’ are named badly. Think about ADHD - ‘Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder’. Ummm there is certainly no deficit in the attention I can sustain when hyper focusing on one thing for 10 hours. Not to mention the fact that ADHD is SO MUCH more than the way my attention span is. Even the word ‘disorder’ tells us we’re wrong or broken when we’re just differently abled.

[@realspacemodels]

One of the best books on disease is "The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story". By Richard Preston. Even though it was published in 1994 it still explains a lot about how disease is spread and fought.

[@saragrit6166]

I loved that book! It gave a human touch to a very scientific story. It gave me some comfort to read (and some anxieties) during the beginning of the pandemic

[@alessandrasmith339]

Hi, John! I’m glad you talk about illness the way you do because it makes it an easier concept to swallow and face. I’m not sure if I was just anticipating your video today or if something else was going on but I did have a dream that you were at a park on a hammock and gave out wisdom. I believe I said something along the lines of, “a wasp stung me for no reason” and your response was, “sometimes these things happen. The best thing to do is be kind to yourself and take a nap.” Not sure if that’s something you subscribe to, but it was sure profound to dream-me!

[@MKPiatkowski]

Listening to this while my body deals with the second chemo treatment and my hair is falling out. Thank you for this. ❤️

[@gregoryboyek622]

I'm a medical student and my colleagues and I discuss and learn quite a bit about the ways in which we describe and think about various illnesses in the culture of medicine. Shifting our language about certain diseases is critical to understanding them in the contexts that they appear: "diabetics" to "patients with diabetes", "drug abusers" to "patients with substance use disorders". Thank you for putting that large topic into such succinct words.

[@DarthSmirnoff]

As a fellow Itis collector (Diverticulitis here) welcome to the club! We have cookies, assuming they don't conflict with one of your itis'.

[@SamyTheBookWorm]

I guess my view of disease has been irreversibly shaped by my friends with chronic illnesses, many of which do not have treatments let alone cures. When we define illness as some kind of bodily failure, people with chronic conditions are kind of left out in the cold, unable to just “get better” over time. Disability activists talk about this too, it’s not that being “sick” is inherently limiting or bad, we are just socially unwilling to make the adjustments that would make living with an illness or disability manageable. So instead we ignore it, and we ignore them, and want to put them in a sickbed to die rather than confronting our feelings about disease and disability.

[@sam-the-moomin]

You sound so upbeat about your new -itis at the beginning I almost want to congratulate you on it o-0

[@sckilham]

That last line is sooo good. As a chronic pain sufferer, so often my symptoms and struggles are attributed to personal choice when the reality is that so many of the ways I am expected to live my life do not work with my body. Inaccessible buildings, jobs that require lots of standing/sitting, health systems that are designed to treat acute illnesses but not chronic ones all make my pain worse. My body works in a way that causes me pain, but I could live a much more comfortable and fulfilling life if the society I live in were willing to take chronic illnesses seriously and build accessibility into everyday life.

[@VelociraptorousRex]

I'm a medical student so I think a lot about the way we frame disease and approach it. I think at least on the medical side of things how significant these frameworks are to people. People meaningfully change the way they think of themselves in light of diagnoses. For better or worse or for management purposes, people who are diabetics and those who are not are two different groups of people, even if it's just decided on a cutoff on a spectrum of lab results. The "you've got cancer/orbital cellulitis/etc." conversation happens basically every day of my life, but yet the time my grandpa was hospitalized is a very specific and major and important time in my life. We frame enormous parts of our lives, basically from birth to death, in these medical contexts. I don't know where I'm going with this, but I'm with you, this stuff is a big deal. Also, I don't know who your hand doc is but from the few hand guys I've met at IU, they're all pretty good.

[@sydrw]

+

[@weatherwose4505]

I wonder how much of human consciousness is devoted to trying to forget that "you get to have a consciousness, but it's made out of meat." Like, every time I really consciously remember it, I feel like I need to distract myself or I will have a terrible existential crisis about exactly how fragile my own consciousness is. Also, I'm sorry about your new Itis!

[@saltypineapple8371]

personally everytime i remember it, it also brings a lot of apathy (i think thats the word, trying to say i simply dont care) about it because it changes absolutely nothing about how we live our lives. we were and always a brain living in a hunk of meat with bones and organs and shit and that changes nothing from how we talk to work to doing the good or bad in the world. i also think like this when i took an anatomy class and had a really big deep dive every unit on each organ. it changes nothing but deepens our knowledge on how the world works. sorry if i sound aggressive or uncaring, genuinely trying to help u think differently so u dont get an existential crisis. this sorta mindset helps me avoid alot of existential crisises.

[@rezzy8590]

@@saltypineapple8371 Well, it certainly helped me. Thank you so much.

[@saltypineapple8371]

@@rezzy8590 you're welcome :D glad i can help

[@himanbam]

It's an interesting thing to think about. How a bunch of cells in a clump, working by fairly simple rules, have adapted and evolved to become conscious and sentient. It then confuses me when people say that it is impossible to create a sentient AI or that it wouldn't really be intelligent. Like, does the fact it isn't a meat bag mean it can't be alive? That would be really surprising. I think there are many different ways to get the same overall effect of consciousness. In a system this complex the individual components may not matter too much, whether by cells and proteins (meat), digital or analog circuits, computer simulated neurons, or something else. I think it's possible for any of these to be considered alive, and we just happened to be made of meat.

[@ragggen]

Most of my life has been defined by chronic illness, and I'm dealing with my first ever bout of covid as we speak so right now I feel pretty aware of illness 😂

[@noram1725]

I hope you have a speedy recovery!

[@ragggen]

@@noram1725 thank you!!

[@KunamaElgar]

It's comforting in a strange way to read through all the comments of people describing their experiences with chronic illness. Having one or more chronic illnesses is so incredibly isolating that it can be such a relief just to hear of someone else who shares your same illness and thus understands the physical, mental and financial toll it takes on you. Much love to all of you working hard to just survive, and many thanks to John for telling us we are seen.

[@tabithathompson5263]

I’ve been reading this fascinating (and terrifying) book called “When the Body Says No; Exploring the Stress-Disease Connection” which is about how stress and life circumstances lead to disease. The human body is so incredibly complicated that stress can lead to, or just amplify almost any illness.

[@rogue3398]

This video is very important to me. As someone who was born with an illness that will affect me for my entire life, who grew up and went through school not knowing that I had this illness, my greatest setback in life was not the illness itself, but the people who believed that the side-effects of this condition were a choice that I made. The teachers who told me I had so much potential "if I would only apply myself" when I was already giving more than I could give. The doctors who told me over and over that if I made a "real effort" towards getting better, I could. All the people who told me that I shouldn't say I have a disability because in their minds, admitting to an illness is allowing it to have power over you. No. It already has power over you, and admitting to the power that an illness has over you is the first step to learning to cope with something that isn't going to magically disappear, no matter how much of my own energy I pour into trying. Because it was never about me. It is and always has been about how we as a society imagine and react to chronic illness.

[@ObviouslyBenHughes]

Not me pausing DH&J to watch the new VB 😅 Happy Tuesday, John!

[@umatrivedi3630]

as a disabled person it’s always lovely to have you and hank discuss illness,, i reread tfios two or three times every year because it never fails to makes me feel less alone. thanks for everything john

[@jacqbox]

Okay, the weirdest thing happened just now. I realized you're THE John Green from the books I love so much, and I've been watching this channel for years without ever realizing it. I was ramdomly exploring the Amazon Kindle catalog in a bad mood (because the store stole the name of the forest that takes up 40% of the area of my country, and I firmly avoid buying from it when I can), and then the algorithm recommended "Anthropocene Reviewed" in Portuguese! So I asked myself "Why is such a hard selling title already translated when there are so many books that need translation to my language?" (I'm a translator myself). And BOOM there you were, the guy who created Alaska and many imaginary people I love. Just a quick note: I'd dare say that many authors from poor/underdeveloped countries DO write a lot on diseases, because the lack of money defines who's gonna live or not in many many families even in the last 3 decades of democracy in the South American countries for example, but those authors are just not so famous in rich/developed countries. I like the Brazilian book "Epitaph of a small winner" (Machado de Assis) and two Europeans: The African (Le Clezio) and The Ridiculous Idea of Not Seeing You Again (Rosa Montero), written in French and Spanish, two languages that heavily connect disease to morality.

[@mmooty4443]

distancing ourselves from disease with language distances ourselves from our own humanity and hinders our ability to engage with the vulnerability in others. ty for bringing up such an important topic.

[@christy6606]

after losing multiple family members to illness recently i REALLY started to notice just how little illness gets written about in most forms of media. i had been so used to music especially being an outlet for finding understanding in hard times, but i could barely find any songs or any media at all that spoke to it, it was rlly isolating for sure. i feel like illness & disability get brushed to the side like this all the time

[@robertzarfas9556]

I have eosinophilic esophagitis! I’ve never heard of anyone else having it and OF COURSE it’s you John. And honestly your and Hank’s videos about wuthering really helped me cope with the diagnosis (along with therapy).

[@Alyss93]

This was posted at the same time that I finally went to a doctor to get my own -itis diagnosed and treated. I've been putting it off for nearly a decade because of anxiety and the fear of being judged, and it took a lot to get there today. Thank you for this video!

[@MegaLoveless1]

kings and wars and philosophy are things we talk about because we can to an extent choose and react to them. There is a type of autonomy that we still have when dealing with those things. Disease and illness is something that takes that autonomy away from us in a helpless way that even when we take meds and put up our best part, our body is still subject to failure. This is why I think we don't speak of disease as much as the rest, we don't want to face that helplessness in our written words and make ourselves face that vulnerability and in many cases social shame that comes with having some unseen and unspoken hurt.I have lost 3 family members to disease and each time it was something that left everyone helpless even though we fought like hell and still could not succeed it. Talking about it in therapy is helpful though. Thank you for this video, it was soothing for me.

[@thizizliz]

Lots to think about John. As I roll into yet another decade, it's true, stuff we took for granted begins to go on strike. Things creak & ache & sometimes don't do as I ask. But even at 70, I choose to eat well, move more & appreciate the things that do work well while appreciating the beauty all around!

[@corybenton6115]

Absolutely amazing!! I love the way you talk about 'the way we talk about illnesses'. One of life's themes is that your perspective shapes your reality, so we shouldn't think about disease as "a failure of ones self," and instead as a "side effects of having a body." Also my new favorite quote~ "We have been invited to a very strange party where we get to have a consciousness... but it's made out of meat."

[@spencergoldy3130]

I would like to petition to have "I'm a heavily -itised person" made into a t-shirt. Please and thank you. Additionally, thank you for your nuanced yet impactfully educational content.

[@freemovies411]

How many years into nursing school and I've not yet realized the way we name (and learn) diseases is one huge feeling of failure- Dang. Love what amazing things you two bring to my attention.

[@Dragonchick27]

3:20 Nailed it on the head. It feels much more natural for me to describe my anxiety/depression as “I lack a spine and I feel flat very often” rather than “there are insufficient chemical responses occurring in my brain that lead to unwanted intrusive thoughts and emotions related to anxiety”.

[@elijahfish8243]

I really needed to hear these words. The freedom to not hate myself for inevitable illness is something I have never had. Thank you.

[@calebhiebert3062]

My favourite video on your channel is "your illness is not your fault" they way you talk about illness is relatable, and I like it.

[@GabeHansel]

What an important video. I have a few chronic illnesses, and people around me made me bilieve that I was this failing/kind of weak being, I gues the feeling of being ill reflect that feeling too. But a few weeks ago I got covid for the first time and my body dealt with it very well. So now I'm in the processo of desconstructing this self image and I'm getting better mentaly just by doing so.

[@McScuzzy]

The first video on this channel I ever watched was one a friend sent me about 10-12 years ago, while I was in grad school for PT. You were talking about getting occupational therapy after (while?) signing copies of one of your books. Years later, here's another one, with insight into the human condition. In the intervening years, I've learned a lot from you & Hank's various KZbin endeavors, gotten to help folks elsewhere in the world, and have a growing collection of delightful socks. So, thanks, and take care of your hands.

[@BrianTheGoblin]

This video really hits me close to home. My mother just passed away and she spent the last 40 years of her life with Lupis, a disease that basically makes the body attack itself. She had every disease you could think of, from heart disease to kidney failure, and she reached a point in her life where it didn't matter how healthy she was acting, she was always sick. So eventually she decided she would do the things she wanted to do, eat what she wanted, drink and smoke, because it didn't make a huge difference. But for the years leading up to that, people couldn't figure out why she was so sick and it never stopped people from saying "eat better" or "try this". There was nothing she could have done to convince her own body to not kill itself, but people never seemed to completely understand that.

[@blankface_]

As someone who’s developed tons of immune issues this year, I gotta say this hits. I also had orbital cellulitis

[@gwynething]

Thank you for all this. I would also add that, alongside what you said about poverty and access to resources, stress and grief are astounding catalysts for serious health problems.

[@AlthenaLuna]

Disease has certainly been MY most important historical force - at least since 2004 when I first "got sick" - though arguably for *much* longer. I can't help but think about disease, the treatment for and of it (medically and societally), and the disabled meat suit I'm stuck inside as a consequence of it. I don't have much in the way of...traditional?...-itises, though the treatment FOR my diseases (3 different types of cancer a total of 5 instances) could be reasonably called -itises under the umbrella of "these were responses to the presence of disease and have gone and caused persistent/permanent harm in the process of trying to address the disease". In my case, the treatments themselves even became the disease - the 2nd cancer was a known (rare) side effect of 2/5 of the chemos used to treat the 1st cancer, and the 3rd type (two separate instances, not one and then a relapse like the 2nd type) can be reasonably attributed to the total body irradiation required as part of the treatment for the 2nd type. My broken meat suit...enforces a degree of awareness of the incomplete and ineffectual ways society views/discusses/handles/accommodates disease and its aftermath. Part of the reason I'm so open TO talking about my experiences with cancer is that...it seems like a lot of people are afraid to. Partially from the 'framing of the narrative' but also from the trauma of experience, personal or otherwise. That fear doesn't help anyone, though, not the patients and not their loved ones. Doesn't help me, either - folks hearing a big, scary word come out of my mouth but not understanding what that word has meant to - and done to - me. I understand that many patients aren't like me, for a wide variety of reasons, and they (and I) don't **owe** anyone any information. I just happen to have the 'right' mix of medical outlier, science nerd, and lack of regard for (the policing of bodies and how we talk about them? not sure the best way to frame the "these are taboo but shouldn't be" thing) to be willing and able to discuss these things.

[@clairewestrop8606]

Thank you so much for this video John, very timely for me. I'm in the middle of my own health crisis, and am pursuing a diagnosis of ME (chronic fatigue) post Covid infection. Your eloquent observations have really meant the world to me during this time. I've also just become a monthly donor to PiH's Maternal Centre of Excellence - a project that I've followed since it's inception. Feel so lucky to be able to pledge a small regular amount. Thank you again for the fantastic work you both do. DFTBA!!!

[@jimsrasel]

I jusy got my copy of The Anthropocene Reviewed and very much excited to read your review about Plagues and Staph. Your writing has helped me through so much. Thank you, John.

[@thisverse_rm]

It's strangely comforting to find this video the morning after receiving yet another batch of test results, adding more -itises to a list of possible diseases on my human resume. I'm in my 50s now, fast-approaching 60. Having been sick since my 20s or early 30s without certified names to give to my conditions, I feel as if being vaguely yet absolutely ill is the sole meaning of life. One doctor's diagnosis is challenged by another doctor. In the meantime, medicines are added to my daily tasks just in case I have this and that. And John, I can no longer sign my name in one stroke because my hand suffers from this or that. I guess I will write a book about illnesses because that's one subject I know very well.

[@loraleitourtillottwiehr2473]

This explanation of disease is up there with Prachett's Theory of Boots for an example of explaining complex systems in a simple, digestible, meaningful way. Thank you John! I will be sending this to ableist people who shame me for my chronic illnesses.

[@JoeMagician]

Bo Burnham's Inside doesn't get enough praise in general, but especially for how it is a direct response to COVID and how it affected nearly every facet of Bo's life despite not actually catching it. Sometimes I think there's a desire to see Bo's album as being about depression, isolation, technology, etc. while sort of ignoring that it is about those things which were already problems he had but also specifically about how COVID made those so much worse. It's a topic that's impossible to separate from his work yet you see quite a few trying to do so, and the same for a lot of art that came out and continues to come out of COVID. Like, for instance Welcome to the Internet is about how the internet and corporations seek to hook you onto its wares with a constant, escalating barrage of content more incredible than the last so you can never look away. But it's also about how when that's the only outlet you have left because you couldn't leave your home months or face a horrible death by disease how the internet becomes completely overwhelming like you're drowning in data and content.

[@sydrw]

+

[@OpherPhilms]

It always astounds me when I watch a vlogbrothers video and am reminded that John Green is one of the most eloquently worded authors of our time. I love hearing him speak, it makes me feel at peace.

[@samueltaylor6421]

Honestly life-changing to hear the argument of "why don't we write more about illnesses?" Even just in casual conversation -- arguably, especially in casual conversation -- it is so hard to talk about disease.

[@MollyBorneman]

As someone with a significant amount of anxiety surrounding my heath, doctors, etc., I can’t put into words how much it changed my perspective to hear that described as “side effects of having a body”. I felt a calm settling over me that I hadn’t realized I was missing. Thank you.

[@kaleidoscopicepic14]

Thank you for this, John. In the past few years, I've developed and begun learning to live with a pretty disabling chronic illness, and it's become clear to me that a lot of the blaming of illness on individuals and their choices is based in fear. Many people are more scared of disability than they are of death. That makes it very alluring to believe that disabled people are disabled because they did something (eating, sleeping, exercising) "wrong", and that non-disabled people can stay non-disabled if they just put enough effort into doing those things "right". (Then the logical conclusion is that disabled people are disabled because of their personal failures and because they aren't trying hard enough to get better.) I hope that we can move away from shaming and blaming and towards an understanding of illness and disability as products of an uncaring, ableist (and racist, classist, sexist, etc.) society, which is something we can work together to change.

[@hunterG60k]

Illness, our own, and society's attitude towards it, is an endlessly fascinating topic and I completely agree that we don't talk about it enough! Even apart from the fact that our bodies, the way they can be attacked, and how they respond is so interesting.

[@erinkowalik2768]

I teach high school Medical Microbiology, and I cannot wait to show my next year's students this video. When we explore disease and solutions to disease and don't look at the social, economic, and political influences, we miss out on most of the story. Thank you for giving me an excellent intro into the Epidemiology unit!

[@shavono8402]

"there is this terrible and strange circumscriber of consciousness" John you just said that like it was any other sentence and completely disregarded how profound of a way that is to describe how illness affects our experience as well as our response to it (to often ignore it or live within the "circle" as if it's not there)

[@missaest712]

I have a disability not so much because something is wrong with me but because my body cannot handle the way we have decided work ought to be done in our culture. My body cannot keep up with those expectations. But I'm learning that those expectations are made up. Realizing that doesn't always make things easier. But it does give me confidence in giving myself the care I need and in rethinking my expectations for myself. It's helping me love my body and not blame or be angry at it.

[@MailleGrace]

As a person with a history of major and minor -itises, this is a fantastic video that makes a great point. As a history buff, read 'Rats, Lice, and History' by Hans Zinser. Originally published in 1934, it's a tremendous biography of Typhus, with introductions to other diseases as well, and the impact disease has had throughout history. I recommend everyone read this book

[@castorj.b.1257]

I have multiple autoimmune illnesses and whenever I have a flare it knocks me mentally and I end up feeling guilty that I'm not coping 'as well as I should'. I've been trying to use CBT and other wys of thinking to combat that thought process. There is no should. This is not my failing. I'm doing the best I can.. etc etc. But it's hard. Because society is all about working hard and success. And when those things feel impossible and your success marker is 'I got out of bed today' 'I did five minutes of housework' rather than the success markers you see ther people around you doing - 'I bought a house' 'I got a promotion' 'I published a book' etc. then it's really easy to feel like a failure. I get sick of being ill. But mainly I get sick of society making me feel less-than because I'm ill.

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

This is good timing. I had a cold yesterday. I think it's been a while since I've been sick, so this really had me thinking about my immune system. It's not the particular cold virus that made me feel bad; it's the response from my body which has somehow decided the protocol for a cold is waking up with a headache I can't quite place and going to sleep in a very unpleasant pile of sweat.

[@hannahk.5500]

This video, and that Virginia Woolf quote, lines up with thoughts I’ve been having about covid, and about how we’ve hardly had any media accompanying us through these last few years-that books and TV shows and such have mostly just ignored it. I suppose part of it was ‘leave it to the experts,’ and part of it was that it’s been such a huge force that it would’ve taken over too much plot from the rest of the piece, but… it’s felt weird and uncomfortable to me this entire time that we haven’t really had anything but news articles, community, and therapists to shepherd us through a pandemic and put so many of the feelings that have come out of it into words.

[@lyadmilo]

Very timely video for the first day of my second COVID infection, two days subsequent to my city removing all restrictions including in medical settings, wherein I, as a disabled person, am forced to sojourn most frequently. I am, as the youths say, big mad.

[@TheRaquelephant]

John!!! You must read this new book Virology: Essays for the Living, the Dead, and the Small Things in Between by Joseph Osmundson. It is a FASCINATING look at covid and hiv/aids from a queer virologist who is also an excellent writer

[@silverandexact]

I will be referring to illness and disease only as the "terrible and strange circumscriber of consciousness" from now on.

[@AliJDB]

The way you talk about illness and disease is so comforting and helpful, without being at all condescending or eerily upbeat like honest attempts to help often are. It's a remarkable ability, thank you for sharing it.