The Disability Book Archive

[ID: A book cover. The background is white. A watercolour painting on the left side of the cover, in the lower half, shows the long brown hair, bare shoulder and arm of a person. Half of a red flower is in front of them. The title “Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness” is in the top half of the cover, in lowercase, gold writing. Two red watercolour birds are on either side. The subtitle “How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms” is in smaller, black capitals, to the right of the watercolour person. The author’s name “Ilana Jacqueline” is at the bottom of the cover in slightly larger red capitals. /end]

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Content Warning:

• Medical Content
• Medical Trauma
• Body Shaming
• Ableism
• Cancer
• Injury/Injury Detail

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Summary:

“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.

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Notes:

This book is categorised as “self-help”.

There is an ebook.

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Archivist Comments:

I’ve seen some good things and some bad things about this book. Some people have said that it was a good rundown of life with a chronic illness, relatable, and especially good to read if you’re newly diagnosed with a chronic illness and learning to come to terms with it. Others have noted that the author seems to make a lot of sweeping psychological statements that put the responsibility of learning to deal with chronic illness solely on the person who is diagnosed.

I always take any self-help book (not just ones about disability) with a grain of salt, so that would probably be my advice to you regarding the above.

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