Sociological Perspectives On Chronic Illness

Everyone look at illness differently because of their personal beliefs and the knowledge they have about the illness. According to the Emson, “Illness is a term occasionally used to refer specifically to the patient's personal experience of his or her disease” (Emson HE 1987). Chronic illness affects everyone, regardless of their race, gender and socioeconomic status. A chronic illness is a human health condition or disease that is persistent or otherwise long-lasting in its effects or a disease that comes with time (WHO, 2012).

Kathy Charmaz states in her articles, “Chronic illnesses shift and change over time. Setbacks, complications, medication interactions, and new chronic conditions can force reappraisal of health status and reconstruction of self when they interfere with ordinary pursuits” (Charmaz, 2006). Chronic illness affects people lives which lead to major changes in their lifestyle and the way they work. The key concepts of Charmaz articles are markers of chronic illness, complications, medication interactions and new chronic conditions. Charmaz study explains how medication effects or can add more new chronic condition to the existing one. I think People need to be aware of what chronic illness is and how they can find safer way to walk their self through this disease

I look at the root cause of the issue at the sociocultural, economic and biological levels. Research done by anthropologists has changed my outlook towards personal health and I see living body both as an object and a subject. I have better understanding of Western and non-western medicine, their similarities and differences, and how they approach a disease. Discipline of study uses many theoretical approaches to understand a particular problem. It enables us to tackle the ever changing health environment and presents us with tools to answer the critical and controversial questions about health and