Public Conveniences, Private Matters: Retrospective Narration of Adolescent Daily Life with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

This study specifically investigates the experiences of young people, and their management of everyday living alongside the demands of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). In life-story interviews, 20 adults aged 20-25 years, diagnosed with IBD during adolescence related their experiences of growing up with IBD, providing examples of adolescent life issues. Participants presented many accounts introducing different perspectives of living publicity and privately with a chronic illness. This paper examines expressions of public and private experience that can be found within this dataset. Three emergent issues are discussed: the public environment, the nature of protection and of being protected, and the private self alongside the external bodily self. These accounts demonstrate a need for further longitudinal research to be conducted into the experiences of young people and how they narrate their experiences of everyday life with IBD prospectively, using diary methods and further interviews