“I Do Not Really Belong Out There Anymore”

Abstract

In this article, we explore relations between health, being, belonging and place through an interpretive thematic analysis of autobiographic text and photographs about the everyday lives of 10 women and men living with medically unexplained long-term fatigue in Norway. While interpreting their place-related illness experiences, we ask: How do they experience their being in the world, where do they experience a sense of belonging/not belonging, and why do places become places of belonging/not belonging? The participants describe experiences of (a) being socially detached and alienated, (b) being imprisoned, (c) being spectators who observe the world, and (d) senses of belonging. They describe senses of being and belonging/not belonging as closely attached to physical and symbolic aspects of places in which they reside, and they wistfully reflect on the question of "why." The study illustrates the influence of experienced place-material as well as immaterial-on health and illness.

Out of Chaos—Meaning Arises: The Lived Experience of Re-Habituating the Habitual Body When Suffering From Burnout

“…Their study also shows that the gradual detachment from the interviewees' lifeworld could be understood as a process of losing one's homelikeness, which ended up in an existential breakdown. Correspondingly, the participants in another study described their experience as a fundamental collapse of their lifeworld (Lian & Lorem, 2017). Our study supports these findings as we interpret that the body image not only is an experience of the participants' biological body, but of their lived body.…”

“…The symptoms are complex with seemingly individual combinations that often persist and fluctuate in intensity over time. Due to the lack of a known biomarker in burnout, the medical system and the social security system seem to agree that the subjective health complaints are often due to psychopathology (Åsbring & Närvänen, 2003;Lian & Lorem, 2017;Maeland et al, 2012;Nettleton, 2005). Thus, working is considered part of the rehabilitation process, as the participants are not recognized as physically ill.…”

A Middle-Range Theory of Social Isolation in Chronic Illness

“…A sense of belonging, defined as the extent to which an individual feels connected to and part of the social community [ 35 ], can deteriorate with chronic illness due to experiences of social detachment, self-blame, alienation, and social stigma [ 36 ]. In this situation, the ill individual may have many contacts and experience interactions, but does not feel part of the community.…”

Undermining autonomy and consent: the transformative experience of disease

“…It changes the way they see the world and shows them aspects of life that were previously unknown. Moreover, disease transforms people as persons, as they cannot be who they previously were, do as they formerly did, or have the same life plans as they had 1–4. According to the recent influential philosophy of Laurie Ann Paul, this satisfies the criteria of a TE 5…”