We tend to treat a health breakdown the way we treat a car breakdown, by taking our body in for repairs. . . . Illness shows us some of our vulnerabilities and dependencies, causing us to ask what reality must be like if this is happening. The vulnerabilities of illness are tied up with loss and grieving. Illness, like other losses, indicates to us that our sense of self is too limited and our life plan must be rethought. Part of that rethinking consists of trying to make sense of getting sick.
— Carol Ochs, Song of the Self