Jennifer Brea: What happens when you have a disease doctors can't diagnose
Jen Brea: Was geschieht, wenn Sie eine Krankheit haben, für die es keine Diagnose gibt
Jennifer Brea was a PhD student at Harvard when, one night, she found she couldn't write her own name. Full bio
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to applaud ASL-style, in silence.]
to marry the love of my life.
when we are in good health,
a fever of 104.7 degrees.
zum Arzt gehen sollen,
richtig krank, und ich wusste,
if you have a virus,
some chicken soup,
everything will be fine.
alles wieder gut ist.
I couldn't leave my house.
just to make it to the bathroom.
after infection,
nothing wrong.
alles in Ordnung.
to explain things like this to yourself,
Vielleicht werde ich einfach alt.
to be on the other side of 25.
neurologischen Symptome an.
draw the right side of a circle.
to speak or move at all.
dermatologists, endocrinologists,
"It's clear you're really sick,
what's wrong with you."
herausfindet, woran Sie leiden."
diagnosed me with conversion disorder.
Nebenhöhlenentzündungen,
the sinus infection,
und neurologischen Symptome
neurological and cardiac symptoms --
by some distant emotional trauma
emotionales Trauma ausgelöst würden,
probability theory,
Wahrscheinlichkeitstheorie,
experimental design.
und Versuchsanordnung.
dass ich die Diagnose meines Neurologen
my neurologist's diagnosis.
that the truth is often counterintuitive,
by what we want to believe.
Wunschdenken verdeckt wird.
that he was right.
Möglichkeit in Betracht ziehen,
ein kleines Experiment.
from my neurologist's office to my house,
zu Fuß nach Hause.
almost electric kind of pain.
could have possibly generated all this.
mein Rückenmark brennen.
I couldn't touch my chin to my chest,
zu meiner Brust neigen konnte
Nebenzimmer barfuß lief --
in the next room --
of the next two years in bed.
have gotten it so wrong?
eine seltene Krankheit --
all over the world
Menschen auf der ganzen Welt,
und Wochenenden im Bett,
and weekends in bed,
the next Monday.
wieder arbeiten konnten.
Dunkelheit leben mussten
the sound of a human voice
Nahestehenden nicht ertrugen.
with myalgic encephalomyelitis.
"Myalgische Enzephalomyelitis",
"chronic fatigue syndrome."
"Chronisches Erschöpfungsyndrom".
as serious as this.
wie hier verlaufen kann.
physically, mentally --
ob körperlich oder geistig --
he might be sore for a couple of days.
lang Muskelkater.
I might be bedridden for a week.
die nicht mehr tanzen;
so gut gefühlt wie damals,
from my neurologist's office.
leiden weltweit
people around the world
an der Krankheit.
it's about one million people.
ist es ca. eine Million.
as multiple sclerosis.
so häufig auf wie Multiple Sklerose.
with the physical function
are homebound or bedridden,
gebunden oder bettlägerig.
can't even work part-time.
nicht einmal in Teilzeit arbeiten.
and this devastating
und zerstörerische Krankheit
Konversionsstörung diagnostizierte,
with conversion disorder,
of ideas about women's bodies
vom weiblichen Körper,
by sexual deprivation
Mangel an Sex verursacht würde
Frauen beträfe.
would literally dry up
der Uterus würde vertrocknen,
in search of moisture,
nach Feuchtigkeit umherwandern,
bis zu Schwindel und Lähmung reichten.
und Mutterschaft.
for several millennia until the 1880s,
unverändert bis in die 1880er Jahre,
the theory of hysteria.
Theorie der Hysterie zu modernisieren.
Symptome hervorrufen könne,
could produce physical symptoms
mind to handle.
into physical symptoms.
could now get hysteria,
auch Männer Hysterie bekommen,
the most susceptible.
weiterhin als anfälliger.
the history of my own disease,
eigenen Krankheit zu recherchieren,
these ideas still run.
diese Ideen noch immer sind.
198 Ärzte, Krankenschwestern
at the Los Angeles County General Hospital
County General Hospital schwer.
in the neck and back, fevers --
Steifheit im Nacken und Rücken, Fieber --
I had when I first got diagnosed.
bei meiner ersten Diagnose hatte.
it was a new form of polio.
eine neue Form von Polio.
than 70 outbreaks documented
postinfektiösen Krankheit dokumentiert.
post-infectious disease.
to disproportionately affect women,
hauptsächlich Frauen.
the one cause of the disease,
der Krankheit nicht finden konnten,
were mass hysteria.
als Massenhysterie bezeichnet.
bis heute gehalten?
doctors want to help.
dass Ärzte im Grunde helfen wollen.
what would otherwise be untreatable,
that have no explanation.
für die es keine Erklärung gibt.
großen Schaden anrichten kann.
can cause real harm.
named Eliot Slater
namens Eliot Slater
who had been diagnosed with hysteria.
diagnostiziert worden war.
and 30 had become disabled.
ihnen tot und 30 Invaliden.
like multiple sclerosis,
undiagnostizierte Krankheiten
Epilepsie und Hirntumore.
renamed "conversion disorder."
umbenannt.
that diagnosis in 2012,
diese Diagnose gab,
to receive that diagnosis.
or psychogenic illness
oder Psychogener Krankheit ist,
the absence of evidence,
Abwesenheit von Beweisen.
have held back biological research.
of the least funded diseases.
roughly 2,500 dollars per AIDS patient,
per ME patient.
pro ME-Patient ausgegeben.
has been a choice,
that were supposed to protect us.
sometimes runs in families,
in Familien gehäuft auftritt,
after almost any infection,
Infektion bekommen kann,
to Epstein-Barr virus to Q fever,
Epstein-Barr-Virus zu Q-Fieber,
dreimal so oft trifft wie Männer.
at two to three times the rate of men.
than just my disease.
als nur meine Krankheit.
of a cohort of women in their late 20s
einer Gruppe von Frauen
much trouble we were having
mit Sklerodermie,
des Bindegewebes,
that it was all in her head.
es sei nur die Psyche.
that it was just early menopause.
for years as anxiety.
autoimmune diseases
mit Autoimmunerkrankungen
who are eventually diagnosed
schließlich eine Diagnose
Autoimmunkrankheit erhalten,
sie seien Hypochonder.
this has everything to do with gender
of autoimmune disease patients are women,
it's as high as 90 percent.
sind es sogar 90 %.
disproportionately affect women,
viel häufiger betreffen,
and ME affects millions of men.
Millionen von Männern.
you're exaggerating your symptoms,
to be strong, to buck up.
und sich zusammennehmen.
a more difficult time getting diagnosed.
manchmal noch schwerer,
das, was es einmal war.
thought of as psychological
their biological mechanisms.
ihre biologischen Ursachen entdeckte.
could be forcibly institutionalized
zwangseingewiesen werden,
abnormal electrical activity in the brain.
Gehirnaktivität messen konnte.
as hysterical paralysis
fehldiagnostiziert,
discovered brain lesions.
Hirnläsionen entdeckten.
were just caused by stress,
Stress verursacht würden,
that H. pylori was the culprit.
der biomedizinischen Forschung,
from the kind of science
Nachweise von Autoimmunität,
to find evidence of autoimmunity,
are finding abnormalities
Wissenschaftler in Stanford
away from normal.
Normwerten entfernt sind.
are running a phase-3 clinical trial
causes complete remission.
alle Symptome abklingen lässt.
wissenschaftliche Literatur.
and our own doctors
five percent there,
hier und 5 % dort besser,
an guten Tagen, möglich war,
lächerliche Entscheidungen treffen:
or will I wash my hair today?
im Garten sitzen
that I could be treated.
das war alles.
maybe one day I could get better.
eines Tages besser gehen.
around the world,
with something wonderful,
mit etwas Wundervollem gefüllt,
be able to run again,
jemals wieder joggen
that I now only get to do in my dreams.
for how far I have come.
wie weit ich gekommen bin.
ein klein wenig besser.
when I was stuck in that bedroom,
Schlafzimmer gefangen war,
since I had seen the sun.
die Sonne gesehen hatte.
had I not been one of the lucky ones,
Internetzeitalter erkrankt wäre,
Gemeinschaft gefunden hätte.
taken my own life,
das Leben genommen,
we have saved, decades ago,
schon vor Jahrzehnten retten können,
gestellt hätten?
of my disease is discovered,
our institutions and our culture,
einer anderen Krankheit antun.
are profoundly human endeavors.
und Entscheidungsträger
dieselben Vorurteile,
about women's health.
die Gesundheit von Frauen denken.
a battleground for equality
dieselbe Gleichberechtigung
der Patienten zuhören
to say, "I don't know."
zu sagen: "Ich weiß es nicht".
beginnen Entdeckungen.
of all that we do not know,
großen Unbekannten annähern können,
mit Angst vor der Unsicherheit
with a sense of wonder.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Jennifer Brea - FilmmakerJennifer Brea was a PhD student at Harvard when, one night, she found she couldn't write her own name.
Why you should listen
Over the following months, while doctors insisted her condition was psychosomatic, Brea became bedridden. She started filming herself and the community that she discovered online, collecting the first footage of what would become a feature documentary about myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), often referred to as chronic fatigue syndrome. The film, Unrest, which will premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, tells Jen's story as well as the stories of four other patients living with ME.
Brea is also the founder of #MEAction, an online organizing platform for ME patients around the world, many of whom cannot leave their homes.
Jennifer Brea | Speaker | TED.com