The Experiential Approach in Medical Anthropology
The Experiential Approach in Medical Anthropology looks at how the individual experiences illness and how their experience is influenced by cultural context. The idea of The Sick Role is incredibly important in the use of the experiential approach because often times the sick role can vary from culture to culture and individual to individual. The Sick Role (according to ANP 204: Introduction to Medical Anthropology) is “the ideologies, practices, rights and responsibilities that come with being a person suffering from an illness.” The illness narrative is another way anthropologists using the experiential approach understand how an individual experiences illness. An illness narrative can help the teller to understand their own illness and it can also help those who listen to/read the narrative in relating to their own experiences with the illness. There are three kinds of illness narratives. The first is the restitution narrative, which is about a curable, temporary illness. The second is the chaos narrative, which is about chronic or degenerative conditions. Third and lastly there is the quest narrative, which views illness as a journey and an opportunity to improve oneself (breast cancer survivors provide a good example of this kind of narrative).
The experiential approach can be applied to understanding epilepsy. As mentioned in the Biological and Ecological approaches page, there is variation in epileptic conditions. This usually means that no two individuals will experience a seizure the same way. The following is an illness narrative from a sibling of someone who has a seizure disorder. This is restitution narrative because the person who has a seizure disorder is slowly being weaned of their seizure medication because they have been without an episode for quite some time now. This narrative will go through the different parts of the illness narrative starting with the abstract, then orientation, complicating action, evaluation, result/resolution and then coda.
Illness Narrative:
“Living with a sibling who has a seizure disorder can be quite hard sometimes, especially when we were younger. My sister was diagnosed with a seizure disorder around 4 or 5 years of age and now at the age of 19 is on her way to being on no medications to prevent seizures. Her first seizure was after an appointment with the pediatrician. We were in the car on our way back home when my sister fell over and started leaning on me. According to my mother I was telling her to “stop it” and to stop leaning on me. When my mom looked in the rear view mirror though my sisters lips were blue/purple and she went unconscious. I was 6 or 7 at the time and this was my first experience with seizures and the first time I got to ride in an ambulance.
A few years later when I was around 14 or 15 and babysitting my sister over the summer (she hadn’t had an episode in a while and I had watched her and our youngest sister before with no problems) while my mom and dad were at work she had another seizure and this time I was alone. The seizures she was having around this time were partial focal seizures. She would stop responding to you and start blinking uncontrollably and her lips would start to turn blue. In some cases she would shake as well. I remember this seizure in particular because of the fact I was alone, it was just me and my two sisters. I was in a complete panic. I sat my sister up because she had been lying down and kept calling her name hoping she would snap out of it. I quickly grabbed her Diastat that was to be used if her seizure lasted more than 5 minutes. In a frenzy I also called 911 and had to listen to the operator ask a bunch of stupid questions while I was worried that my sister might lose consciousness. While on the online with the dispatcher my sister came out of her seizure and started smiling at me. Thankful that she was going to be okay, I remember calling my mother at work in tears and having her come home because I was worried she might have another seizure. This was one of the last seizures she had. I can remember how terrified I had been during the whole situation and can only imagine how she must have felt. I forgot to mention too that my sister is physically and mentally disabled and she communicates through sign language and some verbal’s (mom, dad, sister, yes, no, etc.).
Today my sister has been seizure free for about 5 years and they are slowly weaning her off her medication. 5 years ago she was on 150 mg. of Lamictal (Lamotrigine) in the morning and 125 mg. in the evening. Today though she only takes 25 mg. once a day. Though I am still worried she will suffer a seizure again, I am hopeful that she has grown out of it (which is what the doctors have said).”
It is clear that the author of this narrative views her sister’s seizures as scary/ traumatic events. This allows the author to recall them quite clearly. They explain when their sister was diagnosed with a seizure disorder and the kind of seizures she would have. They also go into details about their reactions to the seizures. These pieces of information give the reader an idea of how the author is experiencing the illness and how they view it. Growing up with a sibling with a seizure disorder allowed the author to be prepared in case their sister had a seizure. For example they quickly grabbed the Diastat they knew to give her it if her seizure lasted more than 5 minutes. This illness narrative would allow a medical anthropologist to see how this individual contextualizes their sister’s seizure disorder and how they view and explain it.
The experiential approach can be applied to understanding epilepsy. As mentioned in the Biological and Ecological approaches page, there is variation in epileptic conditions. This usually means that no two individuals will experience a seizure the same way. The following is an illness narrative from a sibling of someone who has a seizure disorder. This is restitution narrative because the person who has a seizure disorder is slowly being weaned of their seizure medication because they have been without an episode for quite some time now. This narrative will go through the different parts of the illness narrative starting with the abstract, then orientation, complicating action, evaluation, result/resolution and then coda.
Illness Narrative:
“Living with a sibling who has a seizure disorder can be quite hard sometimes, especially when we were younger. My sister was diagnosed with a seizure disorder around 4 or 5 years of age and now at the age of 19 is on her way to being on no medications to prevent seizures. Her first seizure was after an appointment with the pediatrician. We were in the car on our way back home when my sister fell over and started leaning on me. According to my mother I was telling her to “stop it” and to stop leaning on me. When my mom looked in the rear view mirror though my sisters lips were blue/purple and she went unconscious. I was 6 or 7 at the time and this was my first experience with seizures and the first time I got to ride in an ambulance.
A few years later when I was around 14 or 15 and babysitting my sister over the summer (she hadn’t had an episode in a while and I had watched her and our youngest sister before with no problems) while my mom and dad were at work she had another seizure and this time I was alone. The seizures she was having around this time were partial focal seizures. She would stop responding to you and start blinking uncontrollably and her lips would start to turn blue. In some cases she would shake as well. I remember this seizure in particular because of the fact I was alone, it was just me and my two sisters. I was in a complete panic. I sat my sister up because she had been lying down and kept calling her name hoping she would snap out of it. I quickly grabbed her Diastat that was to be used if her seizure lasted more than 5 minutes. In a frenzy I also called 911 and had to listen to the operator ask a bunch of stupid questions while I was worried that my sister might lose consciousness. While on the online with the dispatcher my sister came out of her seizure and started smiling at me. Thankful that she was going to be okay, I remember calling my mother at work in tears and having her come home because I was worried she might have another seizure. This was one of the last seizures she had. I can remember how terrified I had been during the whole situation and can only imagine how she must have felt. I forgot to mention too that my sister is physically and mentally disabled and she communicates through sign language and some verbal’s (mom, dad, sister, yes, no, etc.).
Today my sister has been seizure free for about 5 years and they are slowly weaning her off her medication. 5 years ago she was on 150 mg. of Lamictal (Lamotrigine) in the morning and 125 mg. in the evening. Today though she only takes 25 mg. once a day. Though I am still worried she will suffer a seizure again, I am hopeful that she has grown out of it (which is what the doctors have said).”
It is clear that the author of this narrative views her sister’s seizures as scary/ traumatic events. This allows the author to recall them quite clearly. They explain when their sister was diagnosed with a seizure disorder and the kind of seizures she would have. They also go into details about their reactions to the seizures. These pieces of information give the reader an idea of how the author is experiencing the illness and how they view it. Growing up with a sibling with a seizure disorder allowed the author to be prepared in case their sister had a seizure. For example they quickly grabbed the Diastat they knew to give her it if her seizure lasted more than 5 minutes. This illness narrative would allow a medical anthropologist to see how this individual contextualizes their sister’s seizure disorder and how they view and explain it.
Citations:
Karim, Taz. “Week 4: Lecture 4.1 Experiencing Illness,” ANP 204: Introduction to Medical Anthropology. http://anthropology.msu.edu/anp204-us14/week-4-lecture-1/
Karim, Taz. “Week 4: Lecture 4.2 Illness Narratives,” ANP 204: Introduction to Medical Anthropology. http://anthropology.msu.edu/anp204-us14/week-4-lecture-2/
Picture Citations:
Figure 1: “Lamictal-redux,” beyondmeds.com, accessed August 13, 1014. http://bipolarblast.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/pills_lamictal.jpg
Figure 2. : “Lamictal,” Wallgreens.com, accessed August 13, 2014. http://www.walgreens.com/marketing/library/finddrug/picture.jsp;jsessionid=876410AA1444EB8BA5AF26F864811489.p_dotcom95?pid=16400
Banner Citation:
“Health topics: Epilepsy,” WHO, accessed August 5, 2014. http://www.who.int/topics/epilepsy/en/
Karim, Taz. “Week 4: Lecture 4.1 Experiencing Illness,” ANP 204: Introduction to Medical Anthropology. http://anthropology.msu.edu/anp204-us14/week-4-lecture-1/
Karim, Taz. “Week 4: Lecture 4.2 Illness Narratives,” ANP 204: Introduction to Medical Anthropology. http://anthropology.msu.edu/anp204-us14/week-4-lecture-2/
Picture Citations:
Figure 1: “Lamictal-redux,” beyondmeds.com, accessed August 13, 1014. http://bipolarblast.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/pills_lamictal.jpg
Figure 2. : “Lamictal,” Wallgreens.com, accessed August 13, 2014. http://www.walgreens.com/marketing/library/finddrug/picture.jsp;jsessionid=876410AA1444EB8BA5AF26F864811489.p_dotcom95?pid=16400
Banner Citation:
“Health topics: Epilepsy,” WHO, accessed August 5, 2014. http://www.who.int/topics/epilepsy/en/