Watch this when
What happens when you have a disease doctors can't diagnose | Jennifer Brea
Normal test results. Real illness. When doctors say it's all in your head, she says the problem is what medicine hasn't learned yet.
Who it's for
Brea describes a sudden high fever followed by symptoms that tests couldn't explain, and a neurologist attributing them to conversion disorder, which is the experience of being disbelieved that many chronically ill viewers carry quietly.
Feelings it meets
What it is
A TEDSummit 2016 talk by TED Fellow Jennifer Brea about living with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), often called chronic fatigue syndrome, which she had developed about five years earlier. She describes the severity of the illness and the obstacles she faced in getting a diagnosis and being taken seriously by medicine.
Where to find it
YouTube, official TED channel (free). Transcript on TED.com. Also featured on NPR's TED Radio Hour.
Before you start
Heads up: Severe, disabling illness.
Age: Ages 14+
Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.Helen Keller, Optimism: An Essay
