Chronic illness is the topic of six different works described below: two films, four memoirs.
I. Christina Applegate‘s You with the Sad Eyes: A Memoir (2026)
Elisabeth Egan, New York Times: “Funny, furious and profane, You With the Sad Eyes finds the TV star facing childhood trauma and reflecting on the limits imposed by illness,” specifically multiple sclerosis (MS).
II. I Am: Celine Dion (2024)
Directed by Irene Taylor and rated a rare 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, this is a Prime Video offering about the star singer’s condition, Stiff Person Syndrome (SPS), during a year of rest and rehab. Lovia Gyarkye, Hollywood Reporter: “Taylor does not shy away from sitting in on difficult points in Dion’s life, including one painful scene in which the singer seizes up after a busy and overstimulating afternoon. Her foot stiffens first and then her entire body locks in place. As her doctor moves Dion to lie on her side and urges her to take deep breaths, tears stream down the singer’s face.”
III. Maudie (2016)
Canadian Maud Lewis lived with severe rheumatoid arthritis in the early 1900’s, when there were no effective treatments. This drama, available to stream, is based on her life.
Tomris Laffly, Time Out: “How do you find happiness if the cards are stacked against you?….(T)he answer sneaks up on you as you watch this film, which is as unassuming and gentle as its subject. ‘Maudie’ breaks your heart with its infectious positivity and an outstanding, big-hearted performance by Sally Hawkins as the self-taught artist.”
IV. Meghan O’Rourke‘s The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness (2022)
Post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome and Long COVID are among the illnesses that O’Rourke has battled. As Andrew Solomon notes in the New York Times Book Review, this “remarkable” book “is not only a memoir of her illness, but also a document of years of research.”
V. Sarah Ramey‘s The Lady’s Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness: A Memoir (2020)
From her publisher: “The Lady’s Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness is a memoir with a mission: to help the millions of (mostly) women who suffer from unnamed or misunderstood conditions–autoimmune illnesses, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic Lyme disease, chronic pain, and many more.” She calls her community WOMIs, standing for women with mysterious illnesses.
The eventual diagnosis of her own chronic illness: complex regional pain syndrome.
VI. Porochista Khakpour‘s Sick: A Memoir—(2018)
Sick is largely about the author’s many years of struggle to get appropriate diagnosis and treatment for late-stage Lyme Disease—but so much more. “I have been sick my whole life. I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t in some sort of physical or mental pain, but usually both” (Nicole Clark, Vice).
A widely applauded memoir—without a particularly uplifting ending.
