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The Spectator's View

Dikshita

 On the 10th of August, 2018 Netflix aired its new documentary ‘Afflicted’ that filmed 7 individuals as they battled their way through chronic illnesses like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Electro-Hypersensitivity and Mold Sensitivity. The seven people who were filmed are, Jamison, a Californian, who is diagnosed with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), a disease that causes extreme fatigue exhaustion, sleep abnormalities and pain. He has not left his bed in two years and doesn’t have a definite treatment plan that is helping his condition. Then there is Carmen from Virginia, with Electro-Hypersensitivity, making it impossible for her to live near any sort of radiations. Bekah Fly, with Mold Sensitivity, forcing her to live in a van on a deserted land outside the states; Jake with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and other undiagnosed diseases that keep him in pain and alter his personality to an extent that he can’t function on his own. Star with multiple autoimmune diseases like Lyme Infection, Dystonia and Neuralgia. Pillar with Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) forcing her to live in isolation for years. Jill is a New Yorker with MCS, and other diagnosed diseases she is searching an answer for.

These individuals have been living with the diseases for more than two years now. The main aim of the show was to capture the hardships faced by people living with chronic illnesses along with their family/friends/supporters. Finding the right treatment from the right doctor is essential to the survival of such chronically sick patients. They juggle through 10 different kinds of treatments, doctors, and diagnoses before seeing minimum improvement in their condition. It also catches a few glimpses of the effect of chronic illnesses on the patient's’ family dynamics, the huge sum of money that goes into treating the disease(if they are lucky enough to find the right treatment in the first place) and the lasting effect of the illness on the identity of the person suffering through it.

While the show attempts at putting forth all facts in a transparent manner and resonating with the struggle of finding a diagnosis and its desired treatment, the participants claim that the producers altered many of the incidents and factual information. The one matter in hand, that pissed participants the most is the way their illnesses have been connected to their mental or psychological condition. The patients and the audience both felt that the show has misled everyone by questioning the genuineness of the disease. Even after repeated reminders from the patients, the producers presented the illness in ways that force the audience to question the reality of the situation.

Every episode and each of the stories was presented with the question: is this real or is it in their head? For the record, they aired two episodes with the word ‘mind’ used in its title. While chronic illnesses do have a substantial effect on the psychological condition of an individual, is it acceptable to link the very cause of the illness to the patients' psychological condition and term them fictional? Drawing examples from the show, when Jake feels he has developed a pulmonary embolism in his leg and forces his parents to drive him to a doctor. While the doctor is interrogating Jake’s symptoms, he questions the doctor by confirming if its real or is he being crazy. Leaving the audience with such a dilemma is not fair to Jake’s condition. Counter-intuitively, the spectator is forced to become dismissive of Jake’s symptoms by doubting their occurrence. While research says that mentally ill patients are at a higher risk of developing such chronic conditions, there is no data correlating the two. On what grounds then is the show dismissing the patients’ condition by terming them too crazy to be true?

The show also links the cause of these chronic illnesses to the patients' past trauma and mental illnesses. The scene in which Bekah Fly’s parents narrate her psychotic episodes during Bekah’s teen and early adulthood years is one such episode. Through this whole issue, we are forced to think of the general perception that people have of chronically sick people. Unexplained abnormalities are often seen with a ‘crazy’, ‘it’s all in the patient’s head’ kind of taglines. This has forced a number of sick patients to abandon their homes.

While there are no substantial studies proving that psychological issues are the leading cause of chronic illnesses, we have literature on the toll that chronic illnesses take on the patients and their acquaintances; and people aren’t aware of it. The show fails at bringing light to the actual facts and hurdles that chronically ill patients face on a day to day basis due to its make-believe presentation. The discussion boils down to one simple yet a significant question: is it acceptable to question the genuineness of the disease due to the nature of its symptoms?

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