https://www.statnews.com/2025/11/25/chronic-disease-journey-long-covid/
"Like an estimated 20 million Americans, I have an incurable post-acute
infection syndrome that goes by the name of long Covid. Some people refer to
the long Covid experience as a “journey.” I wish they would stop. I’m pinned
down by it, stuck with it. I feel like I’m getting nowhere.
Sugarcoating my bitter pill, a chronic disease, by calling it a “journey” might
sweeten it for you, but not for me. Among “you” I include medical
professionals, writers, and editors. Between 2007 and 2015 the
BMJ ran a
series of articles written by chronic disease sufferers called “Patient
Journeys” about a slew of disorders from restless leg syndrome to much worse.
According to University of Pennsylvania linguist Mark Liberman, the word’s
usage in the biomedical literature rose slowly and steadily from a low rate in
1990 to 2010, and then exponentially until 2024, by a factor of over 20. Ghost
co-writing by AI probably played an accelerating role with its creeping
homogenization of language and thought. By comparison, according to linguistics
professor Jesse Egbert, general usage only about doubled over the same period.
My personal MyChart page includes a “Care Journeys” section that lays out an
itinerary and tour guide for my visits and procedures. I would sooner call them
stops on a bad trip. For over a year I have suffered from long Covid, a
post-acute infection syndrome, whose symptoms overlap with myalgic
encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). For me, those are
debilitating fatigue, dizziness, occasional brain fog, dyspnea, hoarseness,
muscle weakness, exercise intolerance, and crushing post-exertional malaise.
Inflammation, autoimmune mechanisms, and dysautonomia are commonly thought to
cause such symptoms. My tests show cardiac and neurovascular conditions like
arrhythmias, pre-load failure, orthostatic intolerance, and likely because of
severely impaired oxygen extraction, mitochondrial dysfunction.
People with other such complex chronic diseases, and of course cancer, also
read and hear their experiences referred to as “journeys” by well-meaning
sympathizers. The treacly word triggers my gag reflex, and I’m far from alone.
This should give users of the word pause. Virtually every one of 352 reader
comments on a 2024
New York Times article by Lisa Miller called “When Did
Everything Become a Journey?” expressed varying degrees of displeasure about
the word’s use in both medical and non-medical contexts. The five most recent
comments included “cringeworthy,” “repulsively fussy and flowery,”
“pretentious,” and “yoga babble.”"
Via Violet Blue’s
Threat Model - Covid: November 27, 2025
https://www.patreon.com/posts/covid-november-144496970
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
