The way in which we arrive at the conclusion “I am well” vs “I am ill” is very different than the way we are judged as healthy or diagnosed as diseased.
Wellness-Illness & Health-Disease are assessed differently.
A judgment of health/disease is typically arrived at through allopathic, often medical, examination of a person’s body. Indeed, many diagnoses must be made by healthcare professionals and cannot be confirmed without the results of any number and combination of diagnostic and potentially invasive testing maneouvres. Contrarily, wellness/illness is perceived by the individual and is an overall self-assessment about where one is headed, how things are going, and if everything is going to be okay – regardless of the presence or absence of health and/or disease. It is the generalized perception of where things are at regarding our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health. Wellness/illness speaks to the relationship we have with our body, our state of health and/or disease, and more generally, our current life circumstances. So while an individual’s state of health or disease may remain the domain of healthcare professionals, and to a larger extent the dominant culture, wellness can only be assessed - and created - by the individual, from within.