Hemodialysis is a treatment that requires from the patient a level of commitment certain to impose daily difficulties and limitations that may interfere with his biological, mental, social and spiritual balance. The study herein intended to assess the perception of health and illness of the individual on hemodialysis. It is a qualitative research with interview questions, which used the Collective Subject Discourse Methodology (CSD), carried out in a hemodialysis clinic in Curitiba, Brazil. Sixty-three patients were interviewed and six main discourses were obtained: “Health is the absence of pain”; “Health is physical and mental well-being”; “I’m always healthy”; “The disease is something that weakens and prevents you from living a normal life”; “Disease is having to do hemodialysis”; and “I always feel like a sick person.” Physical and mental wellbeing may or may not be present in the routine of those on hemodialysis, but it can determine the way this individual copes with the obstacles presented to him.