Invisible Illnesses Research Paper

The denotation of the word “invisible” means something that is not visible to the eye. The term “illness” is a disease that affects the body or mind. These terms although seemingly have no direct connection and may even be thought of as contradicting, have a very realistic and obscure relation. An invisible illness is characterized by “a condition that is not perceptible, not noticeable, not evident to others.” (Vickers,134) There are a great amount of illnesses that manifest themselves through “invisible” symptoms, such as: diabetes, fibromyalgia, sickle cell disorder, inflammatory bowel disease, etc. These invisible symptoms may become exacerbated without the knowledge of anyone other than the sufferer. Due to the lack of visibility of …show more content…
Various methods could be tried and tested in order to see if raising awareness for invisible illnesses brings further understanding and knowledge. Further understanding as of a result, can lead to less stigma in society towards these illnesses. Awareness through different methods will be planned and coordinated in order to display the truths and realities of invisible illnesses. The base foundation of raising awareness will be to initiate a campaign that brings attention to the individuals that are suffering in silence whose voices need to be heard. Despite the fact that the benefits and effectiveness of campaigns are hard to predict, mass media campaigns have shown to be effective in the behavior of the viewer toward the topic being disputed. In the mid-1990’s the effectiveness of mass media campaigns towards addiction and tobacco was measured, this experiment consisted of “121: 25 controlled field experiments on youth and 40 on adults, and 57 population-based state/national mass media campaigns”.(Makefield, Loken, Horkin, Par. 9) This experiment concluded that there was “strong evidence for benefit”(Makefield, Loken, Horkin, Par. 9) meaning that mass media campaigns had a strong strong effect on the positive reasoning of tobacco use. Relatively to how mass media campaigns were effective for tobacco use, the same concept can be applied to the use of a campaign to raise awareness and rise the stigma associated to invisible illness. A key element to the campaign that I plan to initiate is the creation and use of PSA’s(Public Service Announcements) in order to provide a easy and effective way of communication to society about the effects of stigma in invisibly ill individuals. These PSA’s will also inform viewers about the realities and hidden truths of the sufferings that carriers of this type of illness face. These videos will posted on a “Youtube”

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