Illness Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Illness can be a synonym for disease or it can be a person's perception of having poor health.Disease is an actual physical, pathophysiological process which can cause an abnormal condition of the body or mind. See disease for more information.
Illness and disease may not the same. Most people who have a disease will feel they have an illness.
However, people may be physically healthly (have no disease or sickness), but if they feel unhealthy, they will believe they have an illness.
Similarly, a person with something physically unhealthly with them will have a disease, but if they feel completely well, they may believe they do not have an illness. For example, people could have dangerously high blood pressure (hypertension) and be in danger of having a fatal heart attack or stroke, yet they feel perfectly well and believe they do not have an illness.
The biopsychosocial model draws a distinction between the actual pathological processes that cause disease, and the patient's perception of their health and the effects on it, called the illness.