Paper short abstract:

For people with autoimmune diseases , the constant bioecocultural arcs endlessly connecting hyperactive neurons, immune processes, memories, and sociocultural interactions, daily impact one’s possibilities of engaging with the world. We propose a model to move towards questions of perseverance.

Paper long abstract:

Chronic pain scars every aspect of ones’ life. Pain arcs and feeds back on itself fusing bodily sensations to every thought. For people with autoimmune diseases causing chronic pain and fatigue, the constant bioecocultural adaptations, or what we refer to as arcs endlessly connecting hyperactive neurons, immune processes gone hay-wire, with traumas, memories, metaphors, impacting daily one’s possibilities of engaging with the world. How might we model these processes to move beyond claiming holistic interaction, to discuss the problem of perseverance: How does one persevere into a possible tomorrow when one’s horizon and abilities is always in the shadow of a betraying body and a judgmental society? This paper combines on 15 years of scholarly research among people with chronic, autoimmune disease, with the insights of a co-author with more than fifty years of personal experience with a chronic, autoimmune disease, to synthesize a biologically sound and experientially resonant model of autoimmune chronic pain as resulting from multidimensional arcs of the moment-by-moment and day-by-day dynamics which exacerbate pain or aid its amelioration within a broader model, informed by personal history within a local moral world, that occurs day-by-day, as life experiences can influence the severity of chronic pain which can further influence one’s life course. Our goal is to join a scholarly conversation to push holistic systems models so that they can be analytically useful in exploring human realities.