My immune system goes on holiday sometimes. When it comes back, it ramps into overdrive, attacking my body and the “invaders” indiscriminately. I’m never sure whether I’m sick or sick, whether I should say I have a cold or a chronic illness, whether my body is underreacting or overreacting. Immune, autoimmune. Fight back, self-destruct. Maybe I’m being taken over—or maybe the call is coming from inside the house. My body, the haunted mansion.
I have plenty of data. The tests come back weird but inconclusive. Too little of this, too much of that. I have no name for the Disease. Just a haywire, unpredictable system and no way to cast blame.
If you don’t have a diagnosis, what do you have? If you’re sporadically sick are you really sick? Are you exaggerating? Are you lying? Where’s the subreddit? (Don’t worry, there’s a subreddit for the undiagnosable.) Doctors will tell you what you have: a psychosomatic issue, which they mean in the al…
