The ones progress forgot: medically unexplained conditions and the myth of recovery

This essay explores the chronic marginalization of medically unexplained chronic health conditions, using myalgic encephalomyelitis and long COVID as examples of conditions facing broad systemic medical neglect. Drawing on a critical autoethnographic approach, the author writes from a dual position as both researcher and a person living with myalgic encephalomyelitis. These conditions are consistently plagued by dismissal, underfunding, misdiagnosis, and psychologization of symptoms, disproportionately affecting marginalized individuals. Rage and refusal are reframed not as pathological but as rational responses to medical injustice. Highlighting lived experience and rejecting redemption-focused recovery narratives, this analysis challenges the assumption that progress is best measured through individual improvement and instead exposes how systemic barriers continue to propagate harm for those who do not recover.