Chronic Illness Memoir

Finding Joy presents a comprehensive, practical guide for living your best life with chronic illness. This psychology self-help book integrates personal and professional insights to give you tools for handling various aspects of living with a chronic illness. There is also a chapter specifically for the loved ones and caregivers of the chronically ill. While this book is designed for anyone with a chronic illness, the spiritual content early in the book suggests the value of sticking to your faith and offers several Bible references.

Rather than focusing on the medical side of long-term conditions, this book contains bespoke advice for the parts of everyday living that often go unspoken - from practical advice on friendships, dating and independent living, to more reflective guidance on rediscovering your identity and learning to self-advocate. Chronic illness affects everybody differently, but we all want to find joy where we can and make the most of what we have. This book exists to help you take accessible steps towards that goal and build a life that truly feels like yours.

Chronic illness creates many challenges, from career crises and relationship issues to struggles with self-blame, personal identity, and isolation. Beloved author Toni Bernhard addresses these challenges and many more, using practical examples to illustrate how mindfulness, equanimity, and compassion can help listeners make peace with a life turned upside down. In her characteristic conversational style, Bernhard shows how to cope and make the most of life despite the challenges of chronic illness.

After a number of years of being chronically ill with Lyme disease, Jenny Rush had a momentary realization that she was overlooking a lesson that was resulting in continued ill health. As she went into her last year of dealing with chronic illness at a physical level, Jenny shifted her primary focus from the illness itself to addressing the multitude of experiences that the illness was provoking.

Can you really cure chronic pain without drugs, surgery, or therapy? Surprisingly, often the answer is yes. While chronic pain can have a physical cause, this book, written by a leading UK physiotherapist and chronic pain specialist, reveals how very real, even debilitating, pain can frequently be caused by our brain in response to repressed or avoided emotions as a result of current and even past experiences. This process is at the root of many common complaints.

Does agony define your daily experiences? Have overactive nerves drained you of energy? Are you told you’re crazy because your doctor does not understand your pain? Working at one of the largest rehabilitation facilities in the country, pain management expert Dr. Evan Parks has 32 years of experience helping people find hope and freedom. Now, he’s here to teach you how to reclaim command of your mind and body so you can wake up refreshed and ready to conquer your goals.

In this lyrical, radically expansive self-portrait, celebrated poet, author, and lecturer Sophie Strand explores—with searing insight and honesty—the intersecting spaces of her own chronic illness, the complex ecology of a changing world, and the very nature of the stories we tell ourselves...

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE In this vulnerable, insightful memoir, the New York Times columnist tells the story of his five-year struggle with a disease that officially doesn’t exist, exploring the limits of modern medicine, the stories that we unexpectedly fall into, and the secrets...

A poetic, darkly funny memoir of one woman’s trip across the national parks straight into life-threatening illness and the joy that still holds us, no matter how much life hurts. “Unapologetically raw, defiantly humorous, this book is the bravest of journeys. . . . A memoir that makes no...

A moving, honest and revealing memoir of living with chronic illness, and an examination of the ways a relationship with the natural world can affect us, from debut author and Guardian country diarist Nic Wilson When Nic Wilson begins researching the history of her local landscape and its...

A luminous, searching memoir of illness, uncertainty, and the strange, intimate work of healing In 2022, Emma Zimmerman contracted COVID-19. What she expected to be a mild illness instead unraveled into something far more disorienting: a cascade of persistent, inexplicable symptoms that reshaped...

Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is known to be a condition in which people usually have hypermobile joints and stretchy skin. This is what physicians generally look for when they are considering EDS diagnoses. The truth is that EDS can present in many different ways. There are many different types and forms of EDS, and they affect very different parts of a person's body. A physician who looks for only two signs is missing the big picture of the family history and the patient's symptoms in relation to an EDS diagnosis.

"A best memoir of 2020" —BookPage The darkly funny memoir of Sarah Ramey’s years-long battle with a mysterious illness that doctors thought was all in her head—but wasn’t. A revelation and an inspiration for millions of women whose legitimate health complaints are ignored. In her...

Chronic pain, illness, and disability take so much away. Sometimes it seems as though they take everything we have ever loved and held dear. Our physical abilities and our jobs. Our current passions and future dreams. Our finances and our friends. Our sense of community and our ability to engage the world in ways we could before. Chronic pain takes away our sense of self and who we always thought ourselves to be. How in the world are we supposed to deal with this fact?

A Humorous Look at Chronic Illness and the Ridiculous Things People Say, by Marie Ciampa. Ever had someone say something that made you pause, raise an eyebrow, and think, “Did they really just say that?” Chronic illness is tough enough, but the absurd comments from well-meaning friends, family, and even strangers can be downright hilarious (and sometimes baffling). In The Shit people say!, Marie takes listeners on a rollercoaster ride through the most ridiculous and unintentionally funny remarks made to someone living with chronic illness.

For the first twenty-seven years of his life, Ben McKelvey didn't spend too much time thinking about his brain, nor much about trauma. He was fit, carefree and happy working as a magazine journalist, writing listicles and doing celebrity junket interviews. Then one day, while boxing, he suffered...

“You Look Fine”—The Three Words That Prove No One Understands What You're Going Through. Nicole O’Donnell collapsed in a store on what seemed like a normal Tuesday. That collapse triggered six years of medical hell: doctors who dismissed her symptoms, specialists who shrugged their shoulders, treatments that cost thousands and delivered nothing but false hope. Sound familiar? Here's what she discovered that changed everything: You don’t need another person telling you to “stay positive” or try the latest miracle cure.

In this thought-provoking memoir, an award-winning journalist explores the chaos, doubt, and search for meaning that come with staying one step ahead of cancer for decades. “An Exercise in Uncertainty has a powerful and restorative story to tell us. Jonathan Gluck’s life of illness and...

Diagnosed with a disease that can't be reversed? Learn how to keep living life to the fullest. Have you received a terminal or chronic diagnosis? Can you ever find joy, peace, or fulfillment in these challenging conditions? The answer is a resounding yes. When author Jarem Sawatsky was diagnosed with Huntington's Disease, he found there were no guides for those living with incurable illness. He quit his job as a professor and devoted his life to exploring the possibilities of living with chronic conditions. Now he's bringing his findings and insights to you.

An Avid Reader book. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every reader...