We will take as a working definition of ‘illness’how disease and sickness are brought into individual consciousness. Illness personalizes disease. It is the secondary psychosocial and cultural responses to disease by the patient.
Let’s take headaches as an example and ask some questions about how you would respond to having a headache:
What do you do if you get a headache?
How much would your head have to ache before you started noticing it?
Would you describe yourself as someone who gets headaches very often?
Do you pay attention to which part of your head is aching?
Do you tell anyone you have a headache or do you keep it to yourself?
If you would tell someone who might you tell? What would you be likely to say?
Do you have a pretty good idea what is causing your headache?
Do you know how to make your headaches go away?
If you had a headache and you had commitments like going to work or a meeting in your community would you keep those commitments or would you ring and say you couldn’t come because you had a headache? Would you ‘soldier on’?
Do you ever use having a headache as an excuse to get out of doing something you don’t want to do like going to school work or making love?
If you have a headache do you have people who will pamper you if you tell them about it?
Do you take medication for a headache and if so what?
If you would take medication for a headache how do you decide what to take how much to take and when to start taking it?
If you would take medication for a headache have you seen a doctor about your headaches and did he or she prescribe you medication for headaches or suggest a type to take? Or do you go to the chemist or supermarket and get an over-the-counter medication?
How much medication are you taking? How strong is it? How regularly are you taking it?
How much money would you be spending on headache medications?
Have you told your doctor you get headaches and have you ever been checked for what might cause it?
Have you used an online diagnostic tool like WebMD to help you learn about your headaches?
Have you tried modifying your diet in relation to headaches? Are there any types of foods that you are aware of triggering headaches for you?
How much sleep and rest are you getting? Could your headaches be anything to do with not getting enough rest?
Could your headache be because of drinking too much last night or something like that?
Do you use tapping or pressure point therapies or acupuncture to help with headaches?
Have you ever consulted an acupunturist about headaches?
How many challenging and difficult situations are you dealing with in your life at the moment? Do you think these could be part of the cause of your headache?
Does mediation or stress management exercises help you with headaches?
Does exercise such as going for a walk help you with a headache?
Have you tried someone like a chiropractor or physiotherapist for treating your headaches?
How much of a problem are headaches for you personally?
Is it an increasing problem decreasing or stable?
When did you start getting headaches? How old were you?
Do you have names for headaches? (Migraine splitting headache ???)
Would you pray about a headache or ask for healing prayer or touch in church?
Are you aware of what sorts of things you were thinking about when your headache started? What are you thinking about when it is going on?
What part does your self-talk play in your having a headache? Have you tried changing your self-talk and focusing on something quite different?
Can you take some ‘time out’ to get into a different environment away from a conversation?
Do you have a piece of calming music that you can play that takes your headache away?
Will a hug or playing with a pet help?
Could toxic fumes in the room be triggering your headache such as formaldehyde from new furniture?
Have you ever ended up in hospital or an emergency because of a headache? What was the outcome? The diagnosis?
Is having a headache a bad thing? A nuisance?
What does it say about you?
This is a long list of questions that were easy to come up with just by thinking about how we respond as individuals to a particular disease situation. You can probably think of lots of other questions of a similar type.