Chronic Illness Narratives and Lived Experiences
Summary
Chronic illness narratives comprise the personal accounts through which individuals make sense of life-long health conditions, mapping the interplay between medical treatments, identity work and social context. Such narratives often begin with a biographical disruption, as diagnosis interrupts previous life trajectories, and are followed by ongoing negotiation of self, relationships and daily routines. Lived experience studies highlight how people draw on personal, familial and cultural resources to accommodate fluctuating symptoms, treatment regimens and social expectations. Photovoice, in-depth interviews and narrative analysis reveal the interpretive labour required to integrate chronic illness into self-identity, and the ways in which individuals alternate between engagement with and resistance to medical advice. Socioeconomic, gendered and cultural factors shape the contours of disruption, restriction or continuity in life stories, emphasising the need for care models that recognise patients as co-constructors of knowledge. Across populations, chronic illness narratives illuminate both vulnerability and resilience, offering practical insights for patient-centred care, policy design and community support.
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Chronic Illness Narratives and Lived Experiences publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in chronic illness narratives and lived experiences across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Biographical disruption: A concept describing the rupture in personal biography caused by the onset or diagnosis of a chronic illness.
Biographical dialectics: The ongoing process of negotiation and problem-solving that individuals undertake to manage the enduring impact of chronic illness on life narrative.
Narrative analysis: A qualitative method for examining the structure, content and function of personal stories to understand how individuals construct meaning.
Thematic analysis: A methodological approach for identifying and interpreting patterns or themes across qualitative data, such as interview transcripts or written accounts.
References
- Biographical dialectics: The ongoing and creative problem solving required to negotiate the biographical disruption of chronic illness. Social Science & Medicine (2023).
- Biographical accounts of the impact of fatigue in young people with sickle cell disease. Sociology of Health & Illness (2022).
- Finding ways to carry on: stories of vulnerability in chronic illness. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-Being (2020).
- Non-visible disease, the hidden disruptive experiences of chronic illness in adversity. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-Being (2020).
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