Recommended Reading:
       Daily Coping

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How to Be Sick: A Buddhist-Inspired Guide for the Chronically Ill and Their Caregivers, by Toni Bernhard

This book can help readers to get through the dark tunnel of chronic illness. It teaches coping skills that can benefit all of us.

Minding the Body, Mending the Mind, by Joan Borysenko

Are you struggling with negativity as you deal with chronic illness? This book may help you change your mind and body in a positive way. The author explains insights from psychoneuroimmunology research in an understandable way. She then teaches how to use this mind/body connection to improve your quality of life.

Self-Hypnosis: The Complete Manual for Health and Self-Change (2nd edition), by Dr. Brain M. Alman and Dr. Peter Lambrou

This is a very comprehensive and understandable guide to using self-hypnosis. It starts simply so you can use it right away, and also includes advanced techniques.

10 Simple Solutions for building Self-Esteem: How to End Self-Doubt, Gain Confidence, and Create a Positive Self-Image, by Glenn R. Schiraldi

The title says it all.

Rituals of Healing: Using Imagery for Health and Wellness, by Jean Achterberg and Barbara Dossey

This is one of the best books I’ve seen on imagery.  It is a powerful tool you can develop to direct your mind and body towards new paths of healing.

This book is an informative, well-written, easy-to-read guide for coping with anxiety.  We live in a world of stress, and that world can seem overwhelming at times.  This guide can be helpful for anyone struggling to cope.

This book presents a system developed and used successfully by people with a variety of physical and emotional symptoms. It has helped them use self help skills more easily to monitor their symptoms, decrease the severity and frequency of symptoms, and improve the quality of their lives.

In spite of the use of words like "sins" to describe memory dysfunctions, this book has a lot of good information.  It helps to understand that the common memory deficits — transience, absent-mindedness, blocking, misattribution, suggestibility, bias, and persistence — are different, and each of them can be remedied.

This book is an easy to understand guide to help you manage your own medical care.

Living Well with a Hidden Disability, by Stacy Taylor with Robert Epstein

This book is a treasure which will help those of us with hidden disabilities cope with a world that often refuses to acknowledge or validate our conditions.  There are sections emotional issues, physical issues, health care provider issues, love and sex, parenting, the workplace, and dealing with the public.  The workbook sections are also very helpful.

Disappointment with God, by Philip Yancy  

This book explores the questions that many of us with chronic pain may ask.  Is God Unfair?  Is God Silent?  Is God hidden?  This book is written from a Christian viewpoint but is suitable for the non-Christian as well.

Embrace Tiger, Return to Mountain: Spiritual Conflict Management, by Gary Simmons (Reader)

Of all the audio tapes I reviewed for the 2^nd edition of the Survival Manual, I thought this one was one of the best.  It blends Judeo-Christian philosophy with the Tao and does it well.  The author and narrator is both a Unity minister and a martial arts instructor.  It is a guide for dealing with conflict and fear in the journey of life.  I will listen to this tape many times.

Recovering from Depression: A Workbook for Teens, by Mary Ellen Copeland and Stuart Copans

Caught in-between childhood and adulthood, teens live in a special world.  Teens with chronic illness are even more at risk for depression.  This book can give them the helping hand they need to bring them out of that valley of confusion and turmoil.

Healing the Trauma of Abuse: A Woman’s Workbook, by Mary Ellen Copeland, Maxine Harris, 2000

If you are a woman who has survived abuse, this book may be what you need to help gain control over the demons of the past.  If you still feel victimized, you CAN overcome it.  This book gives you help.

Alternative Treatments for Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, by Mari Skelly and Andrea Helm

This book is a gem.  There are patient stories as well as sections written by different varieties of care providers, including an osteopath, an acupuncturist, varieties of body workers and mind workers, and a lawyer.  This book also explores narcotics and marijuana use for chronic pain.  It is put together very well.  I am very pleased to have a section in it.

If you want to understand the mechanics behind sleep, dreams and biological clocks, read this one.  Lack of restorative sleep is a major perpetuator of both fibromyalgia and chronic myofascial pain.  This is the best book I found that both explains sleep and sleep disorders and then helps you identify the factors that are affecting your quality of sleep.

The Promise of Sleep, by William C. Dement, MD, PhD, and Christopher Vaughan

If you want to lean more about sleep in great but enjoyable detail, this book is for you.  It is a BIG book, written by one of the greatest pioneers in the field of sleep research.  If you have periodic limb movements, myoclonus, or other sleep problems, or need your sleep habits changed, you should at least suggest that your library purchase this book.

Traveling....Like Everybody Else: A Practical Guide for Disabled Travelers, by Jacqueline and Susan Gersten. Freedman, 1987

This book gives helpful hints for those of us who would like to travel but have remained close to home due to the logistics involved in traveling with a chronic pain condition.  You need a vacation.

Mainstay: For the Well Spouse of the Chronically Ill, by Maggie Strong

For the well spouse.  This book validates and supports those spouses and partners who support us, and covers some of their special needs.

Coping with College: A Guide for Academic Success, by Alice L. Hamachek

(section on learning disabilities)

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