Assignment 1: Disease, Sickness, Illness, and Health

I recently learned that the proper term for “being sick” is know as illness. This took me

back to summer of 2020 when I contracted the viral gastroenteritis (stomach flu). The stomach

flu is defined as an intestinal infection with symptoms of vomiting, nausea, abdominal cramps,

and diarrhea. I remember vomiting everything in my bathroom and my grandmother calling my

mom to come home early. I had a stomachache several hours before the vomiting incident, but I

didn’t take it seriously. In lesson 2 (Defining Health, Disease, Illness, and Sickness), illness is

defined as to how we see our own malaise. Sickness is defined as how others feel about our

malaise. Last summer, I was volunteering at a hospital, and I was coughing and in stomach pain.

But the fellow healthcare workers suspected I had COVID- 19. They kept asking questions to

make sure that I was alright. I had to explain myself thoroughly so that people didn’t take me

mistakenly for an illness that I didn’t have. Some of the healthcare workers also walked away

from me because they did not want to take chances at contracting COVID-19, although I was

experiencing a different illness. I went to the urgent care, and it was confirmed that I had

stomach flu. Many people underestimate the seriousness of flu, but it is a serious illness/ disease.

The flu is spreadable and is an infectious disease caused by the influenza virus. Likewise in

lesson 2, a disease is defined as something that causes physical effects to the body. Accordingly

to the definition of disease, I experienced stomach aches, coughing, and had migraines. As per

the standards of normality and health, I was able to find out that something was wrong with my

body because I did not feel normal as I usually did. I also underwent through many physical pain

at that time and that is also how I came to know that I had contracted an illness. These physical

effects were not normal rather abnormal. I was also very fatigued and weak during the time I
contracted viral gastroenteritis. With constant consumption of electrolytes and sleep, within

about 4-5 days, I recovered from the stomach flu, and I felt normal again.