Long Illness: A Practical Guide to Surviving, Healing, and Thriving

This book joins other health-recovery guides directed at people with difficult-to-diagnose disorders often described as chronic. These include fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, depression, and many other conditions, as well as the baffling set of symptoms now known as long COVID. The authors, both of them physicians, argue that the word “chronic” suggests permanent disease; instead they use the term “long illness,” which they believe opens the door to improvement, even in extended illnesses. The authors showcase the many conditions and symptoms that resemble the long-illness paradigm, such as pain, fatigue, respiratory difficulty, brain fog, digestive problems, sleep disorders, depression, anxiety, trauma, and coping issues. The book includes the authors’ reviews of body/mind interventions, such as stress management, detox strategies, diets, exercise, and conventional pharmacology.