Why Joni Mitchell fears she’s being eaten alive by bugs from outer space

‘Mitchell’s latest medical crisis is just one in a long line of threats to her health. An only child, she was just nine years old when she contracted polio. She defied doctors’ predictions that she would never walk again, recovering after treatment in a children’s hospital, where she sang at the top of her lungs, despite having already started smoking cigarettes — which became a lifelong addiction.

Although she has complained of poor health for decades, it wasn’t until 2010 that Mitchell first said she was suffering from Morgellons, a rare condition widely thought by doctors to be delusional, in which victims believe they are infested with disease-causing fibres and parasites. It was identified only in 2002 by a Pennsylvanian lab technician.

‘I have this weird, incurable disease that sounds like it’s from outer space,’ the singer declared.’

Read more: Why Joni Mitchell fears she's being eaten alive by bugs from outer space