Just Fine: Unmasking Concealed Chronic Illness and Pain

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Summary: A gift to those with chronic illness /pain
Review: Carol Sveilich's new book, Just Fine: Unmasking Concealed Chronic illness and Pain is a gift to those who suffer chronic health conditions as well as to their support networks. Her book is unique in that her skilled photography shows the "normalcy" on the faces of her subjects while her (and their) words reveal the underlying medical conditions which make daily living a challenge. Often these challenges are made all the more frustrating because the individual looks "just fine" to the outside observer. Her subjects own words are a heartfelt testimony to the frustrations, coping mechanisms and positivity which make up the fabric of their daily lives allowing them to survive and thrive.
It is a book of hope, comfort and wisdom and an invaluable contribution not only to the medical community, but to anyone who suffers (or knows someone who suffers) on a daily basis. Ms. Sveilich's book may also help the general public understand, rather than condemn any allowances made for those who suffer terribly but look "just fine."

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Summary: Help and Hope
Review: This book is like two books in one! It contains personal stories and photographs of concealed illness, that are touching and inspiring. Also, the book offers insight into the professions that the patient interfaces with, and those philosphies of treatment.
As a therapist I have already been able to use this book in both ways, to recommend treatment options, and to help clients understand their own feelings mirrored in these many testimonials.
In a age where there is so much suffering from pain or illness, combined with longevity of life and medical procedures, more and more of the population is faced with these kind of issues or struggles. We can learn from each other, gain support from one another, and face the challenges of the medical community together. This author has given us the vehicle to share and to care, to learn and give hope. As a professional it has opened up my eyes and caused me to be more caring, via the understanding I have received.

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Summary: Exploring the unknown
Review: As a diabetic with many of the complications already rampant through my body, Just Fine gave me more insight to my own condition than 30 years worth of doctors and therapists. It helped me understand why others do or don't understand the problems that govern my life. The personal experiences detailed in this book are carbon copies of my own, yet everyone has a different take, or is affected in different ways. This should be required reading for anyone in the medical profession. Too many so-called "medical professionals" are merely technicians treating symtoms, they rarely, if ever, understand the full impact of the disease. Thank you, Carol.

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Summary: Just Great
Review: I wish I had read this book about 10 years ago when I was first diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. It addresses so many of the issues I've had to deal with over the years and gives me some tools and reasonable ways of looking at the cards I've been dealt. I found a lot of understanding and comfort here. As I said, I could have used this book when I was trying to adjust to a new way of life and learning how to manage my pain and other symptoms. This is an awesome resource. Thanks to the author for writing it. I will be recommending it to a friend who lives with diabetes, and another with lupus. We all look "just fine" to others!

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Summary: Finally...someone who understands us!
Review: In all my literature searches since my diagnosis of Fibromyalgia/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, I have never found a book that has captured the experience of those with invisible illnesses with such compassion, clarity, and helpful information.

Just Fine is how most of us look on the outside, and this unique book shows the world visually the truth of our experiences with concealed illnesses. Viewing the pictures of the subjects who look like any average person, and reading their stories of their challenges and treatment options really makes it graphically clear how the world can perceive us without really knowing what our life is actually like. It also provides those of us with illnesses great compassion, support, and a plethera of helpful ideas on treatments and coping ideas, many of them new to me even after 12 years of this challenging condition.

Just Fine is an amazing, well written work for not only the invisibly health challenged, but also their families and medical teams. I hope it will find its' way into every doctor's waiting room table and every household where someone looks just fine, but isn't. It can help so many people.

Thank you for offering this unique resource; it will broaden the world's understanding of hidden chronic illness,which will lead to better experiences for everyone.





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Summary: Plain-terms tales that offer hope & healing
Review: Just Fine: Unmasking Concealed Chronic Illness And Pain brings together a wealth of individual anecdotes concerning ways to deal and live with chronic pain and ill conditions, including Crohn's disease, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, colitis, and much more. Black-and-white photographs are sprinkled throughout the plain-terms tales that offer hope, healing, and testimony to the resilience of the human spirit. Highly recommended.


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Summary: This book is just fine
Review: Just Fine:Unmasking Concealed Chronic Illness and Pain is just what the doctor ordered for people diagnosed with an invisible illness, such as diabetes, epilepsy, asthma, multiple sclerosis, to name a few. Invisible in this context means the sufferer may not have observable symptoms, which makes dealing with it all the harder since the ill person must often suffer alone without the help that society offers to those with more noticeable symptoms. This book is more about the personal experience of illness and what insights the sufferers have gained, rather than a medical treatise. This book interviews a number of people who suffer from a wide range of ailments. They are experts at coping, and they share their journey from diagnosis to the daily decisions they make. It describes how the subjects deal with accepting diagnosis; how they decide whether to disclose the illness to friends, employers, or workers. It discusses alternative treatments that the interviewees in this book try and how effective they are. They have a lot to say to those who have just been diagnosed with or daily struggle with a concealed illness.

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Summary: Book that Nurtures Heart, Mind and Body
Review: This book is fantastic. It is a book with a lot of heart. The author is wonderfully understanding and compassionate and the stories are touching and amazing. I live with chronic illness and found that this book contained a lot of helpful information and wonderful insights. I learned a lot about myself reading it. In addition to it being a wonderful book to savor, I also learned tools for taking better care of myself and my body. Many of my friends and family have also read it and said that they now have a dramatically new understanding of what it is like for me to live with a chronic illness. I would heartily recommend this book to anyone living with a chronic illness, anyone who has a family member or friend living with a chronic illness, or anyone in the medical or mental health field... even if you already think, as I did, that you know all about it!

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Summary: Looking Just Fine but not Feeling Fine.
Review: This book is long overdue. Finally, a book that gives people hope and offers them some great coping tools and avenues to explore. The author also allows the reader to see for themselves how other people cope. I related to so many of their stories, experiences and emotions, as I too live with two concealed illness. This book also addresses depression and the stages of acceptance of any ongoing health challenge. It was so useful for me to read how other people have coped with their circumstances. I related to nearly all of them! The photographs help the reader realize that you never know what's going on behind the facade or a smiling face. I guess everyone is coping with some type of challenge, be it physical or mental. The book really addresses the issue of looking one way and feeling another in a unique way that I've not run across before. Bravo!

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Summary: Expressions of Hope
Review: We all want to project a healthy visage to the world, but a very strange thing happens when chronic hidden pain wears down our insides without necessarily manifesting itself on the outside. Some of us pretend to be our outsides, and often that leads to despair. Some of us may feel we have to justify our illness, our appearance, our emotional balance and that can lead to bitterness. Carol Sveilich has given our insides a voice and a face, mediums of expressions we may have suppressed. She has, therefore, given us hope.