How To Do Life With A Chronic Illness

Drawing on input from people with long-term ailments, this book points the way to achieving the best possible life under the circumstances.

This guide provides inspiration, advice on emotional coping, and support on living your best life with chronic illness from someone who's been there. The emphasis in this book is on LIVING your life, not just enduring it.

'I know that living with a chronic illness in this inaccessible world is tough. Trust me, I know. But you deserve to find peace and contentment just as much as anybody else. So welcome to your one-stop guide on how to make the most of life alongside your condition, in a way that truly works for you'. Chronic illness affects everybody differently, but we all share the goal of living meaningfully and making 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. Instead of focusing on the medical side of long-term conditions, this book dives into the important parts of everyday living that often go unspoken about - from practical advice on friendships, dating and independent living, to more reflective guidance on rediscovering your identity and learning to self-advocate. Between these pages, you'll find bespoke information and resources curated through 10+ years of lived experience, alongside words of wisdom from diverse contributors and subject experts. This book also contains journal prompts, resource lists, and (perhaps most importantly) words of comfort and validation that people with life-altering conditions simply do not hear enough.

Twenty-seven-year-old Laurie Edwards is one of 125 million Americans who have a chronic illness, in her case a rare genetic respiratory disease. Because of medical advances in the treatment of serious childhood diseases, 600,000 chronically ill teens enter adulthood every year who decades ago would not have survived-they and people diagnosed in adulthood face the same challenges of college, career, and starting a family as others in their twenties and thirties, but with the added circumstance of having chronic illness. Life Disrupted is a personal and unflinching guide to living well with a chronic illness: managing your own health care without letting it take over your life, dealing with difficult doctors and frequent hospitalizations, having a productive and satisfying career that accommodates your health needs, and nurturing friendships and a loving, committed relationship regardless of recurring health problems. Laurie Edwards also addresses the particular needs of people who have more than one chronic illness or who are among the twenty-five million Americans with a rare disorder. She shares her own story and the experiences of others with chronic illness, as well as advice from life coaches, employment specialists, and health professionals. Reading Life Disrupted is like having a best friend and mentor who truly does know what you're going through.

“An important antidote to the dogmatic ‘kale and vitamins’ tone of most ‘self-help’ literature.” —Alexa Tsoulis-Reay, senior writer, New York magazine Popular blogger Ilana Jacqueline offers smart and savvy advice, humor, and practical tips for living with an invisible chronic illness. Do you live with a chronic, debilitating, yet invisible condition? You may feel isolated, out of step, judged, lonely, or misunderstood—and that’s on top of dealing with the symptoms of your actual illness. Take heart. You are not alone, although sometimes it can feel that way. Written by a blogger who suffers from an invisible chronic illness, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness offers peer-to-peer support to help you stay sane, be your own advocate, and get back to living your life. This compelling guide is written for anyone suffering with an illness no one can see—such as postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia, multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), Lyme disease, lupus, dysautonomia, or even multiple sclerosis (MP). This book will tell you everything you need to know about living with a complicated, invisible condition—from how to balance sex, dating, and relationships to handling work and school with unavoidable absences. You’ll also learn to navigate judg-y or skeptical relatives and strangers and—most importantly—manage your medical care. Suffering from a chronic illness doesn’t mean you can’t live an active, engaged life. This book will show you how.

Comfort, understanding, and advice for those who are suffering--and those who care for them. 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 readers 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. Benefit from: • Mindfulness exercises to mitigate physical and emotional pain • Concrete advice for negotiating the everyday hurdles of medical appointments, household chores, and social obligations • Tools for navigating the strains illness can place on relationships Several chapters are directed toward family and friends of the chronically ill, helping them to understand what their loved one is going through and how they can help. Humorous and empathetic, Bernhard shares her own struggles and setbacks with unflinching honesty, offering invaluable support in the search to find peace and well-being.

"Should be read by anyone with a body. . . . Relentlessly researched and undeniably smart." —The New York Times Named one of BuzzFeed's "Best Books of 2021" What Doesn't Kill You is the riveting account of a young journalist’s awakening to chronic illness, weaving together personal story and reporting to shed light on living with an ailment forever. Tessa Miller was an ambitious twentysomething writer in New York City when, on a random fall day, her stomach began to seize up. At first, she toughed it out through searing pain, taking sick days from work, unable to leave the bathroom or her bed. But when it became undeniable that something was seriously wrong, Miller gave in to family pressure and went to the hospital—beginning a years-long nightmare of procedures, misdiagnoses, and life-threatening infections. Once she was finally correctly diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, Miller faced another battle: accepting that she will never get better. Today, an astonishing three in five adults in the United States suffer from a chronic disease—a percentage expected to rise post-Covid. Whether the illness is arthritis, asthma, Crohn's, diabetes, endometriosis, multiple sclerosis, ulcerative colitis, or any other incurable illness, and whether the sufferer is a colleague, a loved one, or you, these diseases have an impact on just about every one of us. Yet there remains an air of shame and isolation about the topic of chronic sickness. Millions must endure these disorders not only physically but also emotionally, balancing the stress of relationships and work amid the ever-present threat of health complications. Miller segues seamlessly from her dramatic personal experiences into a frank look at the cultural realities (medical, occupational, social) inherent in receiving a lifetime diagnosis. She offers hard-earned wisdom, solidarity, and an ultimately surprising promise of joy for those trying to make sense of it all.

We were living the American dream. But when the illness invaded our lives, it tore those dreams apart and we were thrust into a fight for our survival. In the devastation, we lost our home, our savings, our cars, and even our dogs. We lost everything but each other. But we are surviving, and thriving, although it sometimes feels as though we are in a mental, physical, and spiritual battle with an invisible opponent. In this uniquely written book, we both tell our own story. But related in a personal tone that moves seamlessly from the emotions of a spouse to motivating coach, this book does more than share a story, each chapter presents practical tips on living a life beyond illness, for both the care giving spouse and the spouse-patient. If you and your spouse are facing chronic illness, especially a severe chronic illness, you will instantly relate to the chapters in this book. You will understand the odd sense of humor we have about things, and you'll feel us when we cry in the darkest moments. For more information and support, visit CouplesFacingIllness.com. This book is also available in audio (visit website for ordering information).