What are we to make of long-covid? How should you respond when someone tells you they have chronic fatigue syndrome? Or irritable bowel syndrome? Or fibromyalgia? Or generalised anxiety disorder (GAD)? They look so well, don’t they? Are they actually ill? Or are they faking it? Are they merely pretending to be ill to get sympathy or time off work?
These are some of the medical diagnoses many find dubious. Some seem to think they are a manifestation of a kind of societal weakness today that encourages medicalisation of life’s normal tough experiences. It is true there is societal influence at work here. But it is also true that they have a long history. The history of medicine includes a history of such ‘dubious diagnoses’.
Terms such as neurosis, neurasthenia, shellshock, and hysteria were used for what appear to be similar disorders that were viewed with similar scepticism at the time. Such diagnoses often generate more suspicion than sympathy, even cynicism about motives rather than support. And there is scepticism about whether such maladies really exist. However, these are real diseases with new diagnostic labels applied. These are examples of what we can call disease creation – and we will consider these next time.
