Nothing is wrong with you is a term i’ve heard all my life,when experiencing feelings of sadness,anxiety worriedness and overall disappointment in my life.It was only at times when my parents saw behaviors and situations that they did not agree with is where I got the advice to drink more water start working out, eat less etc My parents often repeated this phrase some much that when I hear it now I just roll my eyes and continue on with my day,But I never realized how much the phares “nothing is wrong with you” has effect me.Nothing is wrong with you is such a simple expression that has affected my embodiment both with my mental and physical health and it is something that I have never considered or realized till this semester.
From my point of view, when my parents used this term, it was often their way of moving past situations that required emotional effort to navigate. I understand why they were both juggling a lot. My mom worked a full-time job while pursuing her master’s degree, my dad put in over 40 hours a week, all while raising two kids under the age of 10. It was a lot for them to manage, and in their eyes,Taking me and my sister to activities providing a roof over my head and food on the table were the essentials,and the things I needed most.Now i’m not saying that they didn’t care about my emotional needs, but I think their own exhaustion and focus on providing for us made it hard for them to fully engage with the deeper feelings I experienced during my childhood and own personal discovery at times.
As both my mom and I grow older, we’ve developed a stronger emotional connection. Recently, I opened up to her about something I’ve struggled to admit to anyone. I rarely get my period. As a biological female there’s a lot tied to the fact that your period often serves as an indicator of your overall health and what your body will and will not be able to do, in some ways, simple terms of one’s fertility. For a long time, I felt embarrassed to talk about it because it seemed to say some much about myself without saying a lot and most of it were things about my body that I wasn’t ready to face. What really held me back from making appointments and not self diagnosing myself was a part of myself repeating the phrase “nothing is really wrong with you” because I always found a way to justify how my body was moving through time.
Nothing is really wrong with you quickly became a way for my mind to override any negative emotions and what my body’s needs in my life.Which is why I feel like this assignment took so long for me to complete because I could grasp how scholars could contextualize both there unruly bodies fit into society and it not that they just so happend to be borning this way but society was constructed this way.
To end off on a more positive note, I’ve gotten a diagnosis of my medical condition.This realization, combined with finally receiving a diagnosis for my medical condition, has helped me come to terms with the fact that something is wrong with me, and that’s okay. It’s comforting to believe that our bodies aren’t defined by moments of sadness, emotional struggles, or physical issues like irregular periods or hirsutism, but truly embracing that idea of having a body is challenging.
Unruly Bodies 