A...A...ACHOO!🤧🤒
Takeaway: Illness is a social construct.
Yesterday, I interviewed one of my closest friends to determine how she gets healthy and stays healthy. Prior to the interview, I suspected that her responses would be akin to mine due to our glaring similarities, but I was proved incorrect. Even with our similarities, I failed to take into account our different household makeup. I come from a purely African family that does their best to make it obvious; she comes from a mixed family consisting of a Hispanic mom and a southern, traditional black dad. Her mom had always been a free spirit, so I should have anticipated some of her responses. The interview is as follows:
Whom do you call? I usually call my mom, but my mom can’t keep her mouth shut so eventually my grandma finds out too. I don’t really have to say anything though when I am sick because she (her mom) can usually figure it out. She’ll notice that I’m in bed more than usual, so she’ll immediately suspect that something’s up.
What strategies do you use to get well? I typically just rest. I’ll lay down somewhere with my knitted blanket and try to sleep the sick away. But if that doesn’t help much, I’ll make some tea and just let the warmth permeate my body.
What strategies do you use to get well? I use heating pads and ice packs mainly. If it’s something more serious, like a migraine maybe, I’ll just have my mom massage my temples with some peppermint oil. But sometimes, I’ll use steam too. Like I’ll hop in a shower and use lavender oil to help.
What strategies do you use to relieve the pain? I basically just do the same thing. If I have like a stomach virus, I just lay down and eat minimally. So I’ll chew on some crackers and drink some tea until I start feeling better. Sometimes I’ll feel better in like a couple hours, but there was this one time I felt like sh*t for like two days, even with all that.
Are your healing strategies specific to your family, ethnic group, religious affiliation or local or national context? I guess family and ethnic group. My family tend to go more toward more natural remedies because we barely use actual medicine. Like the only time we’ll use medicine is if something is seriously wrong or someone is in a tremendous amount of pain. But other than that, we just stick to natural ways of treating ourselves.
Are your healing strategies guided by moral, economic, religious, or legal mandates or constraints? I think moral, if I understand what the question is asking. Like I said before, my family pretty much thinks medicine is useless. There are so many natural remedies out there that no one really talks about or acknowledges. Like why not use what’s of the Earth? It’s all there for a reason... I don’t know... medicine is just a no-go with us because why risk possibly building a tolerance to some pill and getting addicted?
How do you figure out what made you sick so you don’t get sick again? Oh, I use online sources for sure. Who doesn’t? WebMD, Mayo Clinic, I use it all. But I don’t really get sick, and if I do, it’s usually the same thing: a stomach virus. I’ve had it often enough to know that you shouldn’t drink orange juice when your tummy’s feeling funny. Don’t ask how I know, but trust me, I know.
When you are sick, how do you keep others from being infected? I usually just stay in my room, to be honest. If I do end up going out, I try to keep my distance and avoid everyone, especially my grandma. I make sure not to really touch anything too, just so nothing lingers around. Once I do start feeling better, I get some Lysol wipes and just clean like a freakin’ mad man. Then I’ll wash my sheets too because I don’t want to sleep in the same sheets I was hacking all over.
How do you feel about getting sick? I mean, I don’t really get sick like that, but I guess when I do, it’s just my body telling me to slow down and take a seat. I get light-headed and queasy often—you know this. So it’s really just my body saying, “hey girl, we can’t do this no mo’. You better sit yo a** down.”
Is there a social cause of your illness or disease? Yeah, there probably is. I do get stomach bugs a lot, so that’s likely because someone in this family don’t know how to cook sh*t—out here giving salmonella like it’s candy. But seriously though, it probably is due to food preparation. We do go out and get takeout often, so maybe one of those restaurants is foul and we just never realized.
It was pretty eye-opening discovering my friend’s stance on medicine. I always knew she opted for more natural substances when dealing with sickness, but I was unaware that she was so against biomedicinal healing practices. I think her upbringing played a significant role in how she views sickness and goes about treating it. Her mom is not the biggest fan of medicine, so I suspect that she passed down her way of thinking to her daughter (my friend). She would rather drink some herbal tea and rub essential oils on her temples than pop an Advil. I do understand why she would choose natural remedies over man-made medicine. The former has not been tampered with, unlike the latter. I am sure it is more reassuring to ingest something that was made by the Earth rather than in a lab. This interview made me more partial to trying natural treatments before I immediately opt for some Aleve or Tylenol. It seems to be effective for her, so I just might give it a go.