Required reading. [Sick and Tired by Emily K. Abel]

Medicine finally has discovered fatigue. Recent articles about various diseases conclude that fatigue has been underrecognized, underdiagnosed, and undertreated. Scholars in the social sciences and humanities have also ignored the phenomenon. As a result, we know little about what it means to live with this condition, especially given its diverse symptoms and causes. Emily K. Abel offers the first history of fatigue, one that is scrupulously researched but also informed by her own experiences as a cancer survivor. Abel reveals how the limits of medicine and the American cultural emphasis on productivity intersect to stigmatize those with fatigue. Without an agreed-upon approach to confirm the problem through medical diagnosis, it is difficult to convince others that it is real. When fatigue limits our ability to work, our society sees us as burdens or worse.

With her engaging and informative style, Abel gives us a synthetic history of fatigue and elucidates how it has been ignored or misunderstood, not only by medical professionals but also by American society as a whole.

Emily K. Abel is professor emerita of public health and women’s studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the author of several books, including Hearts of Wisdom: American Women Caring for Kin, 1850–1940.

This should be required reading. Let me say that before I say anything else, because it really was a transformative read. Inviting the reader to examine the historical understandings of fatigue in Western society, Emily K. Abel's Sick and Tired challenges one to recognize the pervasion and deep-rootedness of labor-related and classist ideologies related to defining and treating fatigue and how they echo to the present day. 

A short read, less than 10 chapters, my biggest gripe, and it's not even that large, is that the transition from the last chapter to the conclusion was a bit abrupt. In terms of narrative, Abel's personal history with cancer-related fatigue was regular reference but not entirely addressed in its own chapter. You could take that as a plus, that the anecdotal did not take center stage and primarily was used to support and echo documented fact and trends. Either way, it was slightly jarring as a read in that sense.

What works fantastically here is the way Abel manages to combine factual reporting with the subjective and still have everything ring true. At no point in my read did I scrunch my face in disagreement or contention. It was nothing but facts. And yes, my background as a PharmD and related experiences and education with the pain management may added some positive bias; I'm always for questioning the epistemological foundations of health systems. But I think above all, the degree to which I've already internalized new learned histories and started questioning the motivations of work-related incentives and features is what has astounded most me. Capitalism pervades, but is everything I do for self-care in search of maximal productivity? How many of my habits or my family members' habits, their ideals and outlook, come from the idea that a most productive life is the best suited life for my station, my demographic?

And that's why this should be, in my opinion, required reading. Reexamining the foundational ideas unconscious outlooks are built upon and questioning whether they align with our conscious values is key. In every aspect of life. So 5 stars from, because I could give it nothing else.

Sick and Tired (ISBN:9781469663340) was published April 2021.