Submission Medium: written

Testimonio personal sobre el Trastorno de Ansiedad Generalizada

An anonymous source discusses her experience as a young woman with anxiety. As a child, she began to have recurring thoughts of situations that had never occurred, e.g. fears of being late for class made her unable to sleep. Doctors assumed her only problem was insomnia, without probing for anxiety. Appropriate for upper intermediate classes or community groups to discuss taboo of admitting mental illness, describes various forms of anxiety and offers suggestions for alleviating symptoms.

El miedo de engordar en cuarentena

This narrative is from a woman whose struggle with bulimia worsened during the Covid lockdowns. Maria describes the impact of the isolation and forced inactivity that came from lockdown, and the physical and mental damage she has suffered from her bulimia during the quarantine. Contextualizes her personal struggle in social and cultural frameworks of beauty and control, making this useful for advanced intermediate and above students – and educated lay adults – to discuss eating disorders.

El camino hacia la audición de Mariángeles

The link takes you to a website in Spanish that gives detailed information about cochlear implants. One section labeled “Historias de Usuarios” has several stories from people who have successful experiences with the devices. One example: Mariángeles, an Argentinian woman, feels “reborn” after cochlear implant surgery and returns to study at the university. She says that now that she has her “ears” and her son is an adult, she can fully focus on herself again.

Un suicidio (asistido) en Colombia que nació del amor de un hijo por su madre

The author lived with parents and aunts. When father and her aunts died, she was left alone to help her mother with grief and deteriorating health. The two women struggled with the idea of assisted suicide, but eventually chose that path over further suffering. About 3 pages; workable for intermediate and advanced learners, compelling storytelling for a community group.

¿Cómo superar el duelo? Mi experiencia personal

This story describes the narrator’s struggle with grief after the death of her partner in a car crash. Her persistent questions of “why did this have to happen” and “why did they deserve this” led to depression, barely getting out of bed, and friends noticing changes in personality. When she finally left her house, the fresh air convinced her to see a psychologist. She concludes that the pain never goes completely away but becomes less paralyzing over time.

At 1.5-2 pages, this is appropriate for upper intermediate Spanish learners or a community group to discuss bereavement and how therapy can help. Placement within a website that promotes therapy does forecast that therapy is the answer to problems.

Healing La Salud Mental

This podcast called “En la Sala” is hosted by singer Becky G. There is also a guest on this episode, Latino rapper J Balvin. Both people speak about their struggles with mental health in their industry and in their culture as well. Their discussion reveals that that mental health is a taboo topic in Latin American culture.

Bastian y su padre, unidos por el Implante Coclear

This interview of a father with a son who has a cochlear implant is posted on the website of a company that makes hearing assistance devices. It is one of many brief stories (300-700 words) about deafness and hearing assistance devices on the website. In this one, the father was asked about his tattoo of a cochlear implant on his head and said that this was a way to connect with his son. This interview shows that many people with hearing loss can feel isolated from the rest of the world. Hearing people can gain understanding of the emotional benefits of cochlear implants.

Historias verdaderas de personas con el síndrome de Tourette

Mike Higgens is a dad, husband, and pastor. He tells a short story of the day he was diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome. Although he began to show symptoms at age 12, he was not diagnosed until he was 28. The article could prompt discussion about the importance for physicians to listen to patient stories as well as the signifcance of social support.

Historias de la vida real de personas que tienen diabetes durante el embarazo

A woman who was diagnosed with gestational diabetes learns to take this diagnosis seriously because of possible effects on the baby. This story emphasizes the importance of prenatal doctor’s visits and may be best suited for a community group. Medical Spanish courses might talk about health education for Spanish speaking communities.

Narratives of prevention and redemption in opioid overdose obituaries

This journal article could be used as an example of social scientific study of naturally-occurring health narratives: those found in obituaries, an uncommon source to look for stories of opioid overdose. Raises topics of how overdose and other stigmatized health conditions are (and are not) discussed; might be combined with a literary account of addiction to show humanities vs social science understandings of a phenomenon.

Abstract: Obituaries of people who died from an opioid overdose represent a new territory for understanding cultural narratives of the US opioid epidemic. Drawing on textual analysis of 30 opioid overdose obituaries published on Legacy.com between 2015 and 2020, we describe a prototypical narrative conveyed through opioid overdose obituaries, which renders symbolic meaning through the voices of the bereaved. Obituary authors reimagine their subjects as tragic heroes and reconstitute opioid addiction as a curse, plight or affliction that befalls its victims. Many of these obituaries invoke the language of public health, calling for reform, action or general awareness so other families might avoid the havoc and heartbreak of opioid addiction. We argue that obituaries contribute to broader cultural narratives of opioid addiction by reproducing tragic storylines, vindicating and humanising the deceased, framing opioid addiction as a societal, rather than individual, problem, and medicalising addiction as a brain disease beyond a persons control. Obituary texts thus intertwine a personal story with a broader societal health crisis, transforming stories of the deceased into cautionary tales and public health warnings.Data are available upon request.