“What you’re born with, you die with.” Half a Lifetime of Psychiatric Care for a Traumatized Young Woman With Cystic Fibrosis

Abstract

This case report describes 19 years of psychiatric care of a young female survivor of childhood sexual and physical abuse and neglect who also had the misfortune of having a life-compromising and life-limiting physical disease, cystic fibrosis. It summarizes ~ 100 therapeutic contacts from age 21 to age 40 and spans her journey through lung transplantation to the end of her life. The nature of cystic fibrosis and its treatment is reviewed and there is a discussion of the therapeutic process. The case is enriched by emails from the young woman describing her struggles to maintain personal integrity as her lung function declined. The case is presented with the young woman’s consent.