flâneur

Comments - the gallery of maladies - by kate wagner

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It's heartbreaking to me the way you keep deriding the part you wrote after you got covid. It's excellent writing. Sure, it's in a different style from the more philosophical, analytical first part, but it's urgent and direct in a way that really compliments the rest of the piece. As a veteran of the Extremely Rare Disease support forums, I have to tell you they aren't really great places for anxious minds either. Right after diagnosis, I was talking to a friend who has both mental health issues as well as an extremely rare physical disease. While neither of our diseases are well-known enough to have attracted hypochondriacs seeking homes, she still warned me against "sticking around in online groups" and that they "can be helpful for a little... but take resources, vet them well, and leave" (or something to that effect). I was honestly kind of shocked when she said that, because I hadn't really clocked the fact that no matter the ailment or problem, the people who stick around posting

Thank you for this essay, which is wonderful. I have been something in the neighbourhood of hypochondriac since I hit double digits (various diagnoses, like anxiety, and motions towards diagnoses whose procedures I never followed through, like OCD, followed). I hope you can forgive a rambling response. Many of my experiences in 2020 were, I think, similar. I would not say that the world came closer to my way of thinking about health: I was noticeably much more cautious than my friends and family, and sometimes reacted to perceived health risks (which was usually also real risk) in ways that…

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