Disease Deserves a Thank You

“You’re sick? I’m sorry to hear that.”

I can almost guarantee you that you’ve heard some form of that line at least once in your life if you’ve been “unfortunate” enough to get sick. This apologetic response to a biological misdemeanor (“You need to take care of yourself!” is up there, too) has basically become the expected response after learning that someone is under the weather.

The definition of disease doesn’t help its villain status, either. According to Oxford Dictionaries, a disease is “a disorder of structure or function in a human, animal, or plant, especially one that produces specific signs or symptoms or that affects a specific location and is not simply a direct result of physical injury.” In other words, a disease is something that’s wrong with the way your body is working, and, by extension, anything that is not right with your body. That’s a lot of weight to put on a word.

To be fair, being sick is anything but easy. When you’re sick, you’re fighting a lot of battles. Usually you’re quite fatigued, so you’re fighting a battle without your physical strength. The next stage involves sleeping a lot. Anyone who has slept with a fever can tell you that it’s not much fun: fever dreams are usually quite vivid and can leave you feeling confused and disoriented. Thus, you’re fighting a battle with your mental landscape, too. This combination of physical exhaustion and mental distress is sure to take a toll on your spirit, opening up a third front on the emotional side. In sum, it’s easy to say that it sucks to be sick.

But it’s being easy doesn’t mean that it’s correct. Contrary to popular belief, there are some clear benefits to being sick.

One involves getting to know yourself better. When you’re sick, you begin to understand how you handle problems that you can’t necessarily solve immediately. Do you take the “denial” approach, refusing to accept that you’re sick until something serious happens? Do you immediately become distraught and give in to your misery? Maybe you do some combination of the two? If you take some time to analyze how you deal with being sick, you can learn a lot about the way you handle issues that don’t have obvious solutions and save yourself a lot of time and trouble in the future.

That’s another thing that being sick gives you: time. In today’s society, breaks have become a luxury, one too expensive for some to afford (for mental or financial reasons). But being sick, almost ironically, removes you from the turbulence of the global economy and gives you time. Of course, this time is somewhat tainted, seeing as you’re probably suffering; but at least you have time to reflect on your life once you begin to recover, an invaluable emotional plus.

Indeed, perhaps the best thing about being sick is that you learn just how strong you are. The role of recovery is understated in society; there are few feelings as good as recovering from a low point. If we’d take the time to think about how difficult it is to fend off waves of microscopic organisms that want nothing more than to destroy our feeble little cells, we’d appreciate what we are capable of a lot more. Whenever I get better, I want to high five each and every helper T cell in my body for a job well done. Perhaps this is where we should direct our efforts in addressing the stigma against disease—getting sick is bad, but recovering makes it worth it.

Unfortunately, this argument doesn’t work for every illness. There are certain diseases that do not have cures. But even when disease leaves little room to consider the bright side, there is something to be said for maintaining a positive attitude. People with grave illnesses should be admired for their courage and strength. In refusing to let their handicaps drag them down, they inspire the rest of us, and make us all better.

Medically, the debate is still ongoing as to whether a positive attitude has a significant effect on a sick patient’s condition. But in the mean time, I’ll just stay optimistic. What do I have to lose?

Avinash Saraf ’17 is a Crimson editorial comper in Wigglesworth Hall.