Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

Ilana Jacqueline

Mar 2018 · New Harbinger Publications

About this ebook

“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.

Ratings and reviews

Haven't read it yet but am looking forward to it. After battling systemic scleroderma and PAH lung disease, I'm always looking for inspi ration. Good luck to all fighting a chronic illness.😊🙏

I would recommend this book to anyone with a chronic illness or their caretakers. It's a light and easy read, but filled with a wealth of knowledge and resources. Ilana does not lecture you about fad diets, medicines, or excercises. She gives you advice so you can accept your situation, advocate for yourself, and really thrive with your illness, instead of just being ok. I wish i had this book when I was searching for a diagnosis, but it's a perfect read for anyone in any stage dealing with chronic illness.

I have CVID good book

About the author

Ilana Jacqueline is author of the award-winning blog Let’s Feel Better. She started the blog at age twenty-two to share her humbling, hilarious, and heartfelt experiences coping with chronic illness. From full-contact fights with skull-cramping migraines to making peace with being a human pincushion, she writes boldly and unabashedly about breaking down, getting back up, and pulling off the bandage that is “coming out” about the shame and frustration of living with chronic illness.

Jacqueline is a health journalist and professional patient advocate whose work has included writing for publications like Cosmopolitan and The Huffington Post on the patient experience, as well as working for health care companies and patient advocacy groups as a consultant and advisor. She has a personal connection with the patient community, as she has been a patient with complex chronic illnesses throughout her life, including immune deficiency, dysautonomia, gastroparesis, and an adhesion disorder.

As a health advocate and regularly interviewed expert on chronic illness, Jacqueline looks to help patients advocate for themselves at their most vulnerable moments. She is currently working on multiple projects to help connect chronically ill patients with remote employment opportunities, financial and emotional support, as well as creating new programs for patient empowerment and awareness efforts. Jacqueline lives with her biochemist husband and literally the cutest apricot poodle you’ve ever seen in Boca Raton, FL.