Suffering the Silence: Portraits of Chronic Illness

This beautiful photography project, Suffering the Silence, aims to make more visible the millions of Americans suffering from invisible illnesses:

The stigma surrounding chronic illness can leave people feeling misunderstood, alone, dismissed, and silenced. When someone doesn’t look visibly sick, one can often forget what their life is like behind the scenes. Eleven New Yorkers spoke out about life with chronic illness, breaking their silence and painting a living portrait of what it is like to live with chronic disease. We will no longer suffer in silence.

CHRONICLYME_01-1-of-1
How might we use simple, participatory art projects like this to raise awareness about ME?
HIV_01-1-of-1

Check out more of their photos
Or tweet your own using the hashtag #sufferingthesilence

Looking for inspiration for your activism? Check out more great ideas or see our other resources.

Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp
Email

3 thoughts on “Suffering the Silence: Portraits of Chronic Illness”

  1. Beth Elaine Boel

    The simplicity of this intrigues me. Why couldn’t we join this campaign and launch our photos on August 8 in honor of Severe ME Day? Just a thought.

  2. I think this idea could translate really well to ME. Pictures of our “before” selves, and our “after” selves, in bed or elsewhere. If emotionally honest, these portraits could be extremely powerful.
    Or, pics of patients in bed, sufferinf, with a short statement about their life and levels of achievement before ME, like “before ME: Graduated 3rd in her law school class. After ME: couldn’t brush her own teeth.”

  3. i’d like to participate, but don’t have a camera or smart phone. don’t know if this site is actually working since i can’t see my name or email address in the above fields.
    i’ve been ill since 1990, diagnosed in 1994 with CFS, then a few years later with fibromyalgia. i’ve never had an ME diagnosis, but my symptoms are the same, with some additional medical issues. spent many years bed-bound.
    prior to getting ill i was a systems engineer for an international medical software company. i loved my job and enjoying time off with my friends. i was very active and engaged, and liked to travel. that was another life. everything is totally different now. i’m unable to work and my social interactions are limited. i try to visit my family across the country once a year, but i have to stay for 3-4 weeks to allow time to recoup before getting back on the plane. i barely keep up with my house and daily to-do list.
    my body is currently a mini pharmaceutical company, complete with side effects. but, it does make life a little more manageable. i can relate to the people who feel like they would be better off dead, but life continues. aging doesn’t help. but, some of my friends can now relate to my medical issues, which is a blessing. still, i’ve felt like an old lady for the past 25 years.
    so much of my budget is spent on medical bills, going from doctor to doctor, taking many tests and paying for meds. i’m very upset that social security benefits for people with disabilities in the US are slated to be cut by 19% in 2016. what will we do then?! i think that very few people are aware of this problem, so we need to make some noise. please help. thanks.
    -dee

Comments are closed.

Latest News

Image features newspappers folder up and stacked together vertically. There is a red box in the center that has the words, Why We Keep Telling the Story of ME to the Press in white and the #MEAction logo in the righhand corner of the box.

Why We Keep Telling the Story of ME to the Press

Our press work continues to drum a strong beat as we tell the story of ME everyday to the media. We will continue to fight for our community’s decades of expertise living with, treating and researching ME to be heard, and integrated into our government’s Long COVID response. We refused to be erased from the

Read More »
the words " #MillionsMissing 2023: Scotland calls for healthcare education" appear in white on a red-muted background with the #MEAction Scotland UK logo in the bottom right hand corner.

#MillionsMissing 2023: Scotland calls for healthcare education

This year, #MEAction Scotland’s #MillionsMissing campaign focussed on raising awareness of the reality of living with ME and called for education and training for healthcare professionals to improve support for people with ME across Scotland. Ahead of ME Awareness week, we put out a call, alongside #MEAction UK, to ask members of the ME community

Read More »

Help keep our work going

We rely on donations from people like you to keep fighting for equality for people with ME.

Donate

Get actions alerts and news direct to your inbox

You can choose what you want to be kept up to date on.

Subscribe
Scroll to Top