wandering stars

Conversations about big pharma in progressive communities often end up having an alienating feel for at least some of us who need medication to stay alive, especially when these conversations veer into the territory of claiming that medical conditions are made up or exaggerated in order to sell more medications. This is particularly noticeable with gendered conditions like chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia, as well as mental health conditions, which many people don’t seem to regard as serious medical issues, let alone conditions that might require medication for long-term treatment. But it also expands to almost any condition you can think of; people routinely ask me when I’ll stop using inhalers for asthma and I say ‘when I die.’