Joni Mitchell’s Mysterious Medical Condition Is Still Largely Unexplainable, but She’s Doing Much Better
On April 1, tons of artists and fans packed into MGM Grand’s Marquee Ballroom in Las Vegas to honor Joni Mitchell’s music during the MusiCares Person of the Year Gala. Billy Porter sang a powerful rendition of “Both Sides Now.” Brandi Carlile and Jon Batiste, two nominees at the 2022 Grammy Awards, served as artistic directors of the night.
The show was magical, but it was special because of Mitchell’s presence. According to Billboard, the singer’s appearance was an open question. Mitchell’s public appearances have been rare over the years. She recovered from a brain aneurysm in 2015 and has also had a rare, controversial medical condition called Morgellons Disease for years.
Joni Mitchell’s condition stopped her from performing and traveling for years, as did her brain aneurysm
In 2015, Mitchell was found unconscious in her home after a brain aneurysm. Mitchell, a polio survivor, had to learn to walk again, but her speech returned quickly. Later, NME reported Mitchell was “making good progress.” She underwent daily therapies and soon started walking again too.
However, another condition had been stopping Mitchell from performing and traveling for years before her aneurysm. She self-diagnosed herself with a condition called Morgellons Disease, which many doctors claim is delusional.
In 2010, Mitchell told the LA Times that she has a “weird, incurable disease that seems like it’s from outer space, but my health’s the best it’s been in a while. Two nights ago, I went out for the first time since Dec. 23: I don’t look so bad under incandescent light, but I look scary under daylight.”
Mitchell described her condition: “Fibers in a variety of colors protrude out of my skin like mushrooms after a rainstorm: they cannot be forensically identified as animal, vegetable or mineral. Morgellons is a slow, unpredictable killer — a terrorist disease: it will blow up one of your organs, leaving you in bed for a year.
“But I have a tremendous will to live: I’ve been through another pandemic — I’m a polio survivor, so I know how conservative the medical body can be.”
Mitchell’s condition remains unexplained
In her 2014 book Joni Mitchell: In Her Own Words (per Billboard), Mitchell wrote, “I couldn’t wear clothing. I couldn’t leave my house for several years. Sometimes it got so I’d have to crawl across the floor. My legs would cramp up, just like a polio spasm. It hit all of the places where I had polio.”
Despite what the “Case of You” singer and others say, doctors doubt whether it’s real. Billboard writes that it was only named in 2002 by a Pennsylvania lab technician name Mary Leitao.
“Sufferers say fibers grow from lesions in the skin, potentially because of tiny parasites,” Billboard wrote. “Crawling sensations, extreme itching, and general fatigue/mental fog are also named as symptoms of the condition.
“While sufferers have united behind groups like the Morgellons Research Foundation, the broader medical community still does not recognize the disease. Since it isn’t a recognized condition, there aren’t many reliable numbers on sufferers.”
According to Slate, the Mayo Clinic claims that the disease is psychosomatic. In a report on Morgellons in 2012, the Center for Disease Control did not find that the disease had infectious or environmental causes.
“‘Unexplained apparent dermopathy,’ as they refer to it, is a psychosomatic condition — all biopsies of affected areas came back either negative, or positive for skin conditions like dermatitis. Patients who self-diagnose with Morgellons are often treated for delusional parasitosis (the delusion that they are infested with parasites),” Billboard wrote.
Mitchell told the LA Times that in America, her condition “is always diagnosed as ‘delusion of parasites,’ and they send you to a psychiatrist. I’m actually trying to get out of the music business to battle for Morgellons sufferers to receive the credibility that’s owed to them.”
In 2013, she told The Star, “I’m not cured but I’ve found a helpful physician way outside the box. Western medicine says this doesn’t even exist; it’s a psychotic disease. It’s not.”
Some argue that Morgellons Disease is psychosomatic because many people self-diagnosis. “Rather than accept a doctor’s diagnosis that there is no medical cause for their symptoms, they seek comfort in their shared suffering,” Billboard wrote. Slate’s Torie Bosch said that “because of the stigma of mental illness, people are loath to accept such a diagnosis.”
However, to this day, Mayo Clinic says, “Further study is needed.”
Mitchell is doing much better now
Despite Mitchell’s condition, she’s bouncing back.
In 2020, Mitchel told Cameron Crowe (per the Guardian) that she was “inching” her way along. “I’m showing slow improvement but moving forward. Once again I couldn’t walk. I had to learn how again. I couldn’t talk. Polio didn’t grab me like that, but the aneurysm took away a lot more, really,” she said.
“Took away my speech and my ability to walk. And, you know, I got my speech back quickly, but the walking I’m still struggling with. But I mean, I’m a fighter. I’ve got Irish blood! [long laugh] So you know, I knew, ‘Here I go again, another battle.'”
Since then, Mitchell has entered a new chapter in her life. The Kennedy Center honored her in 2021, and the MusiCares Gala too.
“You know, it’s amazing to me, looking at all of this attention my work has gotten recently … the response when I’ve gone to Clive Davis’ Grammy parties too. He announces me, and that audience gives me this thunderous applause,” she told the LA Times in 2021.
“I’m always so moved when people tell me how the music has affected them. It’s amazing to me that after everything, in spite of the criticism, that the intimacy paid off big time. It really did help people face their own intimacy, you know? Truth and beauty. That’s what I hope to deliver.”
Mitchell has proved that her condition will never stop her from doing what she loves. Fans will be happy to see her more.
