Most Americans deal with illness through allopathic remedies. If they have a headache, they take an aspirin. If they have a cold, they take advil (or if its night time, maybe nyquil). If they have a stomachache they take pepto bismol. For every illness, there is a pharmaceutical company marketing a remedy. A trip to any Duane Reade or Rite Aid might overwhelm you with all of the choices of over the counter medicines on sale. When that doesn't work? We got to the doctor in the hope that he or she will know what to do to get our bodies functioning normally again.
My family has traditionally approached illness differently. Instead of relying on an allopathic approach, we have tended to take a more hollistic approach first. If we have a headache, we rub tiger balm on our heads. Stomachache? Drink some tea. If I have a bloody nose, my father sticks tissue up my nose. When these remedies don't issues, and the problems become more serious, then we turn to Western medicine.
I interviewed my brother to get his take on how he felt about illness and dying. I started by telling him about my experiences with my 12th grade social studies class, "Normal is Weird". He kept on interrupting me to tell me about his love life, so I intervened. I briefly described our illness and dying unit, and asked him to define illness in his own words. Joaquin smiled and said, "Illness is an imbalance of some sort. It comes in many forms and deals with a lack of equilibrium whether that may be a physical, psychological, emotional or spiritual imbalance." He then said that these imbalances must be addressed by individualized treatments specific to each cause or to occurrence. Because I agreed with Joaquin's definition, I thought I might have a bias. Since we grew up in the same household, I knew that we had similar beliefs circulating around our minds since we were children.
To get a less biased definition of illness I looked up "illness" in the dictionary to compare the two definitions. On Websters dictionary, illness was described as "an unhealthy condition of body or mind". To me, this definition seems to reinforce dominant social practices related to the treatment of illness. We see illness as an unhealthy condition, then we probably see it as something that needs to be fixed or repaired. If we see illness as part of the body's effort to heal itself in reaction to trauma, fatigue, or injury, then we see it as a part of normal life, and not as something unusual.
My next question dealt with my brother's direct experiences with illness- "Have you ever seen somebody with an illness, or have you experienced one yourself?" He laughed again and said, " I currently have a cold, Nai." After laughing about his runny nose, his facial expression rearranged to a more stern look. "I have witnessed many different illnesses, like the ones I mentioned before." I then asked him how he reacted to the experiences of seeing someone he knew get sick. "The people who I have seen sick have caused me to reflect on myself. Its brought more awareness and insight to my own well being." He said that humans tend to empathize with the sick and "feel the pain", which is an important part of being human, from his perspective. He said that in one instance, he's cried for three months straight, and in others he's tried to help as best he could.
Although we didn't talk about it in this conversation, I knew that my mothers illness and death from cancer had probably had a lot of influence on the way he formed his thoughts on illness. In my perspective, when you see somebody that is close to you become ill to the point of death, you no longer take health for granted (unless you were young like me).
The last thing my brother said stuck with me"Its also one thing to witness a death, and another to witness one's illness, and watch that person overcome it. When you know someone can overcome it, you can rally with them and be apart of their fight, or it could be something you commit to less fully, be it your own illness. People often ignore their own illnesses. And sometimes they overcome it, sometimes not. Its important to check in with oneself."
My family has traditionally approached illness differently. Instead of relying on an allopathic approach, we have tended to take a more hollistic approach first. If we have a headache, we rub tiger balm on our heads. Stomachache? Drink some tea. If I have a bloody nose, my father sticks tissue up my nose. When these remedies don't issues, and the problems become more serious, then we turn to Western medicine.
I interviewed my brother to get his take on how he felt about illness and dying. I started by telling him about my experiences with my 12th grade social studies class, "Normal is Weird". He kept on interrupting me to tell me about his love life, so I intervened. I briefly described our illness and dying unit, and asked him to define illness in his own words. Joaquin smiled and said, "Illness is an imbalance of some sort. It comes in many forms and deals with a lack of equilibrium whether that may be a physical, psychological, emotional or spiritual imbalance." He then said that these imbalances must be addressed by individualized treatments specific to each cause or to occurrence. Because I agreed with Joaquin's definition, I thought I might have a bias. Since we grew up in the same household, I knew that we had similar beliefs circulating around our minds since we were children.
To get a less biased definition of illness I looked up "illness" in the dictionary to compare the two definitions. On Websters dictionary, illness was described as "an unhealthy condition of body or mind". To me, this definition seems to reinforce dominant social practices related to the treatment of illness. We see illness as an unhealthy condition, then we probably see it as something that needs to be fixed or repaired. If we see illness as part of the body's effort to heal itself in reaction to trauma, fatigue, or injury, then we see it as a part of normal life, and not as something unusual.
My next question dealt with my brother's direct experiences with illness- "Have you ever seen somebody with an illness, or have you experienced one yourself?" He laughed again and said, " I currently have a cold, Nai." After laughing about his runny nose, his facial expression rearranged to a more stern look. "I have witnessed many different illnesses, like the ones I mentioned before." I then asked him how he reacted to the experiences of seeing someone he knew get sick. "The people who I have seen sick have caused me to reflect on myself. Its brought more awareness and insight to my own well being." He said that humans tend to empathize with the sick and "feel the pain", which is an important part of being human, from his perspective. He said that in one instance, he's cried for three months straight, and in others he's tried to help as best he could.
Although we didn't talk about it in this conversation, I knew that my mothers illness and death from cancer had probably had a lot of influence on the way he formed his thoughts on illness. In my perspective, when you see somebody that is close to you become ill to the point of death, you no longer take health for granted (unless you were young like me).
The last thing my brother said stuck with me"Its also one thing to witness a death, and another to witness one's illness, and watch that person overcome it. When you know someone can overcome it, you can rally with them and be apart of their fight, or it could be something you commit to less fully, be it your own illness. People often ignore their own illnesses. And sometimes they overcome it, sometimes not. Its important to check in with oneself."
Naima,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog post because it flowed very nicely and wasn't trying to be something pretentious moreover something genuine and sincere. You outlined your insight well with the beginning being about the dominant discourse versus what your family does differently. Next you wrote about what your brother had to say and added in your own personal insights on top of his and added in your own personal experience about your mothers death (I knew you were a strong lady but I wasn't aware of to the extent, I'm sorry about that). Finally you concluded your post very nicely with your brothers insightful quote, It's important to check in with oneself."
Naima,
ReplyDeleteI agree with Beatrice. I also wanted to say that I thought it was really cool for you to ask your brother about his thoughts, and still try and find other opinions about illness and dying. You really took the initiative, and I also thought ending the post going back to your brother, was good also. You wanted to make sure that he got what he wanted to say out, and you got what you wanted to hear.
Naima Bambina,
ReplyDeleteThank you for selecting me as one of the readers of your blog! :)
This particular topic happens to be one that is of great interest to me. As the interviewee, I enjoyed reading your piece and found it gripping and thought-provoking, with hints of your smug, silly sense of humor smeared throughout each line. ;)
In my favorite line from your blog you apply descriptive language that allows the reader to more clearly envision the subject and the conversation as it develops. You created a slight tone of suspense and offered a quote before presenting the ideas of the subject. Very engaging! I particularly like this point "...After laughing about his runny nose, his facial expression rearranged to a more stern look. "I have witnessed many different illnesses, like the ones I mentioned before."
Nice to read you. And I look forward to the others ;)