The Chronic
Illness Workbook
By Patricia A.
Fennell, LCSW
The fact that multiple
sclerosis affects each person differently is precisely what
elevates The Chronic Illness
Workbook to “must-have” status for anyone
with MS.
Patricia A. Fennell
identifies four progressive phases of change – crisis,
stabilization, resolution, and integration – that likely
occur for everyone dealing with chronic illnesses. The goal
of this comprehensive book is to help people with chronic
illnesses develop effective strategies to live their lives
to the fullest.
Fennell, president
of Albany Health Management Associates, Inc., uses concrete
examples and well-crafted worksheets to guide readers step-by-step
through self-discovery as they encounter each of these four
phases. This approach encourages readers to assess and document
their physical, mental, and emotional states both before and
after their chronic illness diagnosis.
Such reflection
allows readers to judge their own progress by making comparisons
to themselves rather than to other people. This is an MS self-help
book in the truest sense. Documenting personal feelings, abilities,
desires, and ways of life also provides reference points to
help the person recover from relapses, in both the disease
and the four phases.
Throughout the
book, readers are reminded that they are not facing their
disease alone and should seek assistance from their friends,
families, health-care professionals, and co-workers.
It is difficult
to judge when it is appropriate for a person with a chronic
illness to consult this book. There is no sugarcoating of
the realities of living with chronic illnesses such as MS,
fibromyalgia, or rheumatoid arthritis. But such brutal honesty
has the potential of being counterproductive and self-defeating
for a person who is newly diagnosed and slowly coming to terms
with the diagnosis.
This point aside, The Chronic Illness Workbook successfully and compassionately helps people adjust to life
with a chronic illness via self-discovered solutions for taking
back their lives.
New Harbinger Publications,
Inc., 2001, 245 pp., $16.95
Reviewed by Dan
Digmann, Gratiot County-area MS Self-Help Group leader, Alma,
Michigan.
From InsideMS. Reprinted with permission from The
National MS Society.
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