“Other People Thought I was Dirty or Crazy”: Identity Conversations About Medical Exceptions to Masking

Changes in society and how others view us often have an impact on our own identity. For some people, societal changes may prompt reflection and sense-making. With the global health pandemic COVID-19, many changes evolved in mandates and restrictions to mitigate the pandemic. One of these mitigation efforts involved the use of face masks. For some people, wearing masks is medically challenging. This study seeks to understand the lived experiences of those who cannot wear masks and find out how they coped with the situations in which they found themselves during the COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions. The experiences of people with medical difficulty wearing face masks led to strained relationships with family and society, impacting their identity. Using the photo-elicitation interview method, a qualitative study obtained ten interviews that showed experiences connected to current literature on ostracism, invisible disability, and the communication theory of identity.