The Invisible Kingdom
Reimagining Chronic Illness
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Narrated by:
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Meghan O'Rourke
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By:
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Meghan O'Rourke
About this listen
A landmark exploration of one of the most consequential and mysterious issues of our time: the rise of chronic illness and autoimmune diseases
A silent epidemic of chronic illnesses afflicts tens of millions of Americans: These are diseases that are poorly understood, frequently marginalized, and can go undiagnosed and unrecognized altogether. Renowned writer Meghan O’Rourke delivers a revelatory investigation into this elusive category of “invisible” illness that encompasses autoimmune diseases, post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome, and now long COVID, synthesizing the personal and the universal to help all of us through this new frontier.
Drawing on her own medical experiences, as well as a decade of interviews with doctors, patients, researchers, and public health experts, O’Rourke traces the history of Western definitions of illness, and reveals how inherited ideas of cause, diagnosis, and treatment have led us to ignore a host of hard-to-understand medical conditions, ones that resist easy description or simple cures. And as America faces this health crisis of extraordinary proportions, the populations most likely to be neglected by our institutions include women, the working class, and people of color.
Blending lyricism and erudition, candor and empathy, O’Rourke brings together her deep and disparate talents and roles as critic, journalist, poet, teacher, and patient, synthesizing the personal and universal into one monumental project arguing for a seismic shift in our approach to disease. The Invisible Kingdom offers hope for the sick, solace and insight for their loved ones, and a radical new understanding of our bodies and our health.
©2022 Meghan O'Rourke (P)2022 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“An authentically original voice and, perhaps more startlingly, an authentically original perspective….The book is not only a memoir of her illness, but also a document of years of research.” —Andrew Solomon, National Book Award-winning author of The Noonday Demon, in The New York Times Book Review
“The Invisible Kingdom is an important and powerful book in many ways, but perhaps its most valuable contribution is the way it articulates the loneliness and frustration of having symptoms that superficially resemble the pains and pressures of contemporary life in the United States while being much more severe.”—The Nation
“[O’Rourke] gives shape and color to the invisible life of patients whom society has failed. She offers hope for patient-driven change. Most important, she provides an account that many will be able to relate to—a ray of light into those isolated cocoons of darkness that, at one time or another, may afflict us all.” —The Wall Street Journal
Featured Article: Best of the Year—The 15 Best Bios and Memoirs of 2022
There are few stories more compelling or more intimately told than those soul-baring memoirs that seek not just to recount the experiences of one's own life, but to draw some greater commentary on the big existential questions. What does it mean to be human? What is our purpose in being here? How much of who we are is purely self-determined? Exceptional in both their prose and narration, these listens represent a few of the year's best memoirs.
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Am I happy enough? This has been a pivotal question since America's inception. "Am I not happy enough because I am depressed?" is a more recent version. Psychotherapist Gary Greenberg shows how depression has been manufactured---not as an illness but as an idea about our suffering, its source, and its relief. He challenges us to look at depression in a new way.
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Modern Gonzo Tour de Force
- By S. Frank on 11-12-11
By: Gary Greenberg
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Peace, Love & Healing
- Bodymind Communication & the Path to Self-Healing: An Exploration
- By: Bernie S. Siegel
- Narrated by: Bernie S. Siegel
- Length: 2 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A classic of patient empowerment, Peace, Love & Healing offered the revolutionary message that we have an innate ability to heal ourselves. Now proven by numerous scientific studies, the connection between our minds and our bodies has been increasingly accepted as fact throughout the mainstream medical community. In a new introduction, Dr. Bernie Siegel highlights current research on the relationships among consciousness, psychosocial factors, attitude, and immune function.
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horrible horrible
- By Honestly on 02-09-15
By: Bernie S. Siegel
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Chronic
- The Hidden Cause of the Autoimmune Pandemic and How to Get Healthy Again
- By: Steven Phillips MD, Dana Parish, Kristin Loberg
- Narrated by: Teri Schnaubelt, Thomas Allen
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
In this timely book, Steven Phillips, MD, and his former patient, Sony singer-songwriter Dana Parish, reveal striking evidence that a broad range of common infections, from COVID-19 to Lyme and many others, cause a variety of autoimmune, psychiatric, and chronic conditions. Chronic explores the science behind what makes them difficult to diagnose and treat, debunks widely held beliefs by doctors and patients alike, and provides solutions that empower sufferers to reclaim their lives.
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A must read book
- By Amazon Customer on 03-01-21
By: Steven Phillips MD, and others
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Like a Mother
- A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy
- By: Angela Garbes
- Narrated by: Roxana Ortega, Angela Garbes
- Length: 7 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
What to listen to after What to Expect.... A badass, feminist, and personal deep-dive into the science and culture of pregnancy and early motherhood that debunks myths and dated assumptions, offering guidance and camaraderie to women navigating one of the biggest and most profound changes in their lives. Like most first-time mothers, Angela Garbes was filled with questions when she became pregnant. What exactly is a placenta? How does a body go into labor? Why is breast best? What are the signs and effects of postpartum depression?
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Microchimerism - interesting at first, then profoundly healing
- By Emily Virgil on 09-10-18
By: Angela Garbes
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Falling into the Fire
- A Psychiatrist's Encounters with the Mind in Crisis
- By: Christine Montross
- Narrated by: Christine Montross
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Falling into the Fire is psychiatrist Christine Montross's thoughtful investigation of the gripping patient encounters that have challenged and deepened her practice. Beautifully written, deeply felt, Falling into the Fire brings us inside the doctor’s mind, illuminating the grave human costs of mental illness as well as the challenges of diagnosis and treatment. At once rigorous and meditative, Falling into the Fire is an intimate portrait of psychiatry, allowing the reader to witness the humanity of the practice and the enduring mysteries of the mind.
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Buy this book! and READ it
- By joyce on 08-15-13
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Ten Drugs
- How Plants, Powders, and Pills Have Shaped the History of Medicine
- By: Thomas Hager
- Narrated by: Angelo Di Loreto
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Beginning with opium, the “joy plant,” which has been used for 10,000 years, Thomas Hager tells a captivating story of medicine. His subjects include the largely forgotten female pioneer who introduced smallpox inoculation to Britain, the infamous knockout drops, the first antibiotic, which saved countless lives, the first antipsychotic, which helped empty public mental hospitals, Viagra, statins, and the new frontier of monoclonal antibodies. This is a deep, wide-ranging, and wildly entertaining book.
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Engrossing to physicians & lay persons alike
- By C. White on 03-08-19
By: Thomas Hager
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Heart
- A History
- By: Sandeep Jauhar
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
For centuries, the human heart seemed beyond our understanding: an inscrutable shuddering mass that was somehow the driver of emotion and the seat of the soul. As cardiologist and best-selling author Sandeep Jauhar tells in The Heart, it was only recently that we demolished age-old taboos and devised the transformative procedures that changed the way we live. Deftly alternating between historical episodes and his own work, Jauhar tells the colorful and little known story of the doctors who risked their careers and the patients who risked their lives to know and heal our most vital organ.
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Fascinating Insight
- By Ironcharles on 10-27-18
By: Sandeep Jauhar
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The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind
- My Tale of Madness and Recovery
- By: Barbara K. Lipska, Elaine McArdle - contributor
- Narrated by: Emma Powell
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In 2015, Barbara Lipska - a leading expert on the neuroscience of mental illness - was diagnosed with melanoma that had spread to her brain. Within months, her frontal lobe, the seat of cognition, began shutting down. She descended into madness, exhibiting dementia- and schizophrenia-like symptoms that terrified her family and coworkers. But miraculously, the immunotherapy her doctors had prescribed worked quickly. Just eight weeks after her nightmare began, Lipska returned to normal. With one difference: she remembered her brush with madness with exquisite clarity.
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Be Prepared To Feel Insane--
- By Gillian on 04-11-18
By: Barbara K. Lipska, and others
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Human Heart, Cosmic Heart
- A Doctor's Quest to Understand, Treat, and Prevent Cardiovascular Disease
- By: Dr. Thomas Cowan
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 4 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
While serving with the Peace Corps in Swaziland, Thomas Cowan encountered the work of Rudolf Steiner and Weston A. Price - two men whose ideas would fascinate and challenge him for decades to come. Both drawn to the art of healing and repelled by the way medicine was - and continues to be - practiced in the United States, Cowan returned from Swaziland, went to medical school, and established a practice.
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Worthless
- By Martin on 11-04-16
By: Dr. Thomas Cowan
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A Nation in Pain
- Healing Our Biggest Health Problem
- By: Judy Foreman
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 14 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Published in partnership with the International Association for the Study of Pain, A Nation in Pain offers a sweeping, deeply researched account of the chronic pain crisis, from neurobiology to public policy, and presents practical solutions that are within our grasp today. Drawing on both her personal experience with chronic pain and her background as an award-winning health journalist, she guides us through recent scientific discoveries, including genetic susceptibility to pain.
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Broad but superficial.
- By J. P. Murphy on 07-03-15
By: Judy Foreman
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The Heart Healers
- The Misfits, Mavericks, and Rebels Who Created the Greatest Medical Breakthrough of Our Lives
- By: James Forrester MD
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 15 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
At one time heart disease was a death sentence. By the middle of the 20th century, it was killing millions, and, as with the Black Death centuries before, physicians stood helpless. Visionaries, though, had begun to make strides earlier. On September 7, 1895, Ludwig Rehn successfully sutured the heart of a living man with a knife wound to the chest for the first time.
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Great review of the landmark achievements in Cardiology.
- By Trauma NP on 12-14-15
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Counterclockwise
- Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility
- By: Ellen J. Langer
- Narrated by: Sandra Burr
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
If we could turn back the clock psychologically, could we also turn it back physically? For more than 30 years, award-winning social psychologist Ellen Langer has studied this provocative question, and now has a conclusive answer: opening our minds to what's possible, instead of clinging to accepted notions about what's not, can lead to better health at any age.
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Surprisingly disappointing
- By Stephen on 06-23-09
By: Ellen J. Langer
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The Last Best Cure
- My Quest to Awaken the Healing Parts of My Brain and Get Back My Body, My Joy, and My Life
- By: Donna Jackson Nakazawa
- Narrated by: Karen Saltus
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
One day Donna Jackson Nakazawa found herself lying on the floor to recover from climbing the stairs. That’s when it hit her. She was managing the symptoms of the autoimmune disorders that had plagued her for a decade, but she had lost her joy. As a science journalist, she was curious to know what mind-body strategies might help her. As a wife and mother she was determined to get her life back. Over the course of one year, Nakazawa researches and tests a variety of therapies including meditation, yoga, and acupuncture to find out what works.
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Amazing book, but struggled with the voice.
- By erin norton on 01-05-18
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One Doctor
- Close Calls, Cold Cases, and the Mysteries of Medicine
- By: Brendan Reilly
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
An epic story told by a unique voice in American medicine, One Doctor describes life-changing experiences in the career of a distinguished physician. In riveting first-person prose, Dr. Brendan Reilly takes us to the front lines of medicine today.
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Simply Brilliant
- By Jan on 06-20-14
By: Brendan Reilly
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The Lady's Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness
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In her harrowing, defiant, and unforgettable memoir, Sarah Ramey recounts the decade-long saga of how a seemingly minor illness in her senior year of college turned into a prolonged and elusive condition that destroyed her health but that doctors couldn't diagnose or treat. Worse, as they failed to cure her, they hinted that her devastating symptoms were psychological. The Lady's Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness is a memoir with a mission: to help the millions of (mostly) women who suffer from unnamed or misunderstood conditions.
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💯 a valuable use of your money AND time. 💯
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Really great. Loved it.
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Great Reference Guide!
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A must read book
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Chronic illness creates many challenges, from career crises and relationship issues to struggles with self-blame, personal identity, and isolation. Beloved author Toni Bernhard addresses these challenges and many more, using practical examples to illustrate how mindfulness, equanimity, and compassion can help listeners make peace with a life turned upside down. In her characteristic conversational style, Bernhard shows how to cope and make the most of life despite the challenges of chronic illness.
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For those with disability and not
- By Kendal Omdahl on 01-18-17
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In 2001, Toni Bernhard got sick and, to her and her partner’s bewilderment, stayed that way. As they faced the confusion, frustration, and despair of a life with sudden limitations - a life that was vastly different from the one they’d thought they’d have together - Toni had to learn how to be sick. In spite of her many physical and energetic restrictions (and sometimes, because of them), Toni learned how to live a life of equanimity, compassion, and joy.
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Essential read for anyone sick/in pain
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The Deep Places
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In the summer of 2015, Ross Douthat was moving his family, with two young daughters and a pregnant wife, from Washington, DC, to a sprawling farmhouse in a picturesque Connecticut town when he acquired a mysterious and devastating sickness. It left him sleepless, crippled, wracked with pain - a shell of himself. After months of seeing doctors and descending deeper into a physical inferno, he discovered that he had a disease which, according to CDC definitions, does not actually exist.
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Excellent!!
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By: Ross Douthat
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Unwell Women
- Misdiagnosis and Myth in a Man-Made World
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- Narrated by: Hanako Footman
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Elinor Cleghorn became an unwell woman 10 years ago. She was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease after a long period of being told her symptoms were anything from psychosomatic to a possible pregnancy. As Elinor learned to live with her unpredictable disease, she turned to history for answers, and found an enraging legacy of suffering, mystification, and misdiagnosis. In Unwell Women, Elinor Cleghorn traces the almost unbelievable history of how medicine has failed women by treating their bodies as alien and other, often to perilous effect.
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Profound Read; A Sincere Stepping Stone to Understanding My Own Why
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Sick
- A Memoir
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For as long as writer Porochista Khakpour can remember, she has been sick. For most of that time, she didn't know why. All of her trips to the ER and her anguish, pain, and lethargy only ever resulted in one question: How could any one person be this sick? Several drug addictions, three major hospitalizations, and over $100,000 later, she finally had a diagnosis: late-stage Lyme disease. Sick is Khakpour's arduous, emotional journey - as a woman, a writer, and a lifelong sufferer of undiagnosed health problems - through the chronic illness that left her a victim of anxiety....
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Through the Shadowlands
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Julie fully expected to be breathing at the end of the trip - but driving into Death Valley felt like giving up, surrendering. She'd spent years battling a mysterious illness so extreme that she often couldn't turn over in her bed. The top specialists in the world were powerless to help, and research on her disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, was at a near standstill. Having exhausted the plausible ideas, Julie turned to an implausible one. Going against both her instincts and her training, she followed the advice of strangers she'd met on the Internet.
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Gives me a whole new respect for patients w this
- By JJ Edwards on 11-13-22
By: Julie Rehmeyer
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How to Be Sick
- A Buddhist-Inspired Guide for the Chronically Ill and Their Caregivers
- By: Toni Bernhard
- Narrated by: Deon Vozov
- Length: 6 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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How to Be Sick: A Buddhist-Inspired Guide for the Chronically Ill and their Caregivers is a life-affirming, instructive, and inspiring book about living gracefully and purposefully with the challengesfaced by those with chronic pain or illness. These conditions, while not always life-threatening, are life-disrupting and stressful. The audiobook contains over two dozen tools and practices to help people live skillfully and to find equanimity and joy despite the profound changes in their lives.
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The BEST book for chronic suffers
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By: Toni Bernhard
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Childhood, Interrupted
- Raising Kids During a Pandemic
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In this evocative, personal piece, Dr. Sanjay Gupta reflects on his life as a parent during this unprecedented time. He shares his fears and questions about raising his three young daughters amid our current public health crisis - and gives listeners a candid glimpse into how he’s navigating the pandemic at home.
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COVID parenting is hard, but you’re not alone
- By 🔥 Phx17 🔥 on 08-07-20
By: Sanjay Gupta MD
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Where Rivers Part
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Born in 1961 in war-torn Laos, Tswb’s childhood was marked by the violence of America’s Secret War and the CIA recruitment of the Hmong and other ethnic minorities into the lost cause. By the time Tswb was a teenager, the US had completely vacated Laos, and the country erupted into genocidal attacks on the Hmong people, who were labeled as traitors. Fearing for their lives, Tswb and her family left everything they knew behind and fled their village for the jungle.
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Poor Performance, Beautiful Story
- By Princess Eggie on 03-27-24
By: Kao Kalia Yang
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The Long COVID Handbook
- By: Gez Medinger, Professor Danny Altmann
- Narrated by: Gez Medinger, Professor Danny Altmann
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Reports suggest that over 100m people around the world are living with Long COVID (more than 1.5m in the UK) yet reliable, clear information and guidance remains scarce. This book is the definitive guide to understanding, managing and treating the condition. Written by the world's leading immunologist Professor Danny Altmann and expert patient Gez Medinger, The Long COVID Handbook translates cutting-edge science, patient-led research and practical guidance with clarity.
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Excellent From a 2+ Year Long Hauler
- By Amazon Customer on 02-02-23
By: Gez Medinger, and others
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A Dangerously High Threshold for Pain
- By: Imani Perry
- Narrated by: Imani Perry
- Length: 2 hrs and 18 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Imani Perry’s Audible Original A Dangerously High Threshold for Pain tells the dramatic story of her ongoing struggle with lupus—an autoimmune disease that attacks multiple organ systems—and what we can all learn from those who are grappling with chronic illness. It’s a powerful and poetic story that evokes the works of Susan Sontag, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Audre Lorde.
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Powerful
- By Melissa Medley on 03-11-23
By: Imani Perry
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How to Do Life with a Chronic Illness
- Reclaim Your Identity, Create Independence, and Find Your Way Forward
- By: Pippa Stacey
- Narrated by: Pippa Stacey
- Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Rather than focusing on the medical side of long-term conditions, this book contains bespoke advice for the parts of everyday living that often go unspoken - from practical advice on friendships, dating and independent living, to more reflective guidance on rediscovering your identity and learning to self-advocate. Chronic illness affects everybody differently, but we all want to find joy where we can and make the most of what we have. This book exists to help you take accessible steps towards that goal and build a life that truly feels like yours.
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Like hearing a reassuring friend :-)
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By: Pippa Stacey
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Toxic
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- By: Neil Nathan
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Millions of people are suffering from chronic illnesses that, unbeknownst to them, are the result of exposure to environmental toxins and infectious agents such as mold and Borrelia, which causes Lyme disease. Millions. Because the symptoms of these illnesses are so varied and unusual, many of these individuals have sought medical care only to be dismissed, as if what they are experiencing is “in their head”. Many (if not most) have tried to tough it out and continue to function without hope of improvement. Unfortunately, their illnesses are very real.
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What an eye opening and great book!
- By Chris Scharf on 12-08-20
By: Neil Nathan
What listeners say about The Invisible Kingdom
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- Shasta
- 03-20-22
It is excellent
This is the most realistic explanation of living with chronic illness I have ever come across. I’m so grateful she wrote this book now. I’m high risk and the complete isolation covid quarantining has caused has been absolutely brutal. I’ve been abandoned by friends, family, medical professionals, and now society as you all force the embrace of a new normal. No matter the cost. I wish my family would listen to it, but they won’t. If you have a chronically ill friend or family member it would probably mean the world to them if you read this book and talked to them about it.
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3 people found this helpful
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- happy shopper
- 06-08-22
the high i wont forget!
I've read lots of medical texts and different accounts on various topics but this one has lifted the curtain on people like me exposed us through the plight of our times
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- T
- 04-14-22
Diagnosed with Endo on 3/14
I have been fighting for a diagnosis since 2011. Finally was diagnosed and treated for endometriosis at the beginning of this year, and was thrilled this book came out while I was in recover. Thank you so much for sharing your story, Meghan. And I’m so glad you narrated. I hate that it’s this way, but your story is so freaking relatable. It was amazing to feel seen and heard while listening to you. Thank you.
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- Brian Gerlach
- 07-19-22
A must for anyone suffering from ( mysterious) illness
O’Rourke bares her soul as she pours out metaphor after analogy of what it’s like living with chronic illness ( read: Lyme Disease, ME, EDS, autoimmune issues, and more). Her approach is candid, frank, yet friendly- the listener feels as if they are sitting with a friend unpacking the goings-on of health woes. I doubly appreciate the numerous literary references woven into the story. Anyone who is suffering from allopathic medicine failure will appreciate O’Rourke’s memoir.
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- Anonymous User
- 01-05-23
Enlightening
As the mom of a chronically Ill daughter, this book was like listening to her/our story. It’s sad that only now when doctors are getting these illnesses do they take notice to the true suffering that is among us. This book gives anyone who hasn’t fully understood or recognized the depth of illness that can be hidden in those around us. May this help those who suffer in their masked illnesses and awaken the caretakers to rise to this challenge.
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- J Garrett
- 10-07-23
Exceptional !
Having an auto immune diagnosis just recently, and to hear Meghan O’Rourke share her story touched me deeply. Megan, your fight, your perseverance, your ability to find an answer is inspiring. Thank you for such a well written voice for those of us that suffer from an invisible illness. Your time, your effort, your attitude, it will change our health system hopefully to listen and empathize with patients. Those of us that are patients will be inspired to navigate, research, find the right provider(s),seek an answer to be well again.
A well written and researched book.
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- Sarah Weeks
- 04-24-22
Chronic illness
The author doesn’t pull any punches. Chronic illness is awful and victories are rare. I’m not sure I would recommend this book to someone with a chronic illness but I would surely recommend it to friends and family of those with a chronic illness- especially those with long COVID, ME-CFS, Lyme disease, and autoimmune diseases. I’m glad that I listened to the audiobook and that I didn’t read the book jacket - I listened based on a friend’s recommendation.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Mark
- 06-13-23
Knowledge is power!
Nobody should judge anyone’s illness. Doctors are not the know all of our bodies; trust ourselves
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1 person found this helpful
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- Natalie Bester
- 01-25-23
Insight into auto-immunity disease
Meghan’s journey through the jungle of symptoms, traditional and non-traditional medical treatments and experiences gave me a better understanding of my own and family members’ fight against auto-immune disorders. Thank you.
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- HP
- 02-03-23
Comforting, Validating with Fact Finding Reports
Thank you Meghan O'Rourke for your travel log and destination IK journal entries. As a fellow IK explorer, and now a guide for advanced hikers, you had me laughing and crying as so many of your expressions mirror my feelings and experience. One obstacle Ii haven't overcome on this adventure is finding the words to convey my own perspective. Thank you for giving me a better handle on the language and introducing new idioms to me. I hope all those struggling to accept their current quality of life while staying hopeful and motivated enjoy this book as thoroughly as I did. @hp_wellnesscoach for @chronicwellnesscollective I'd love to meet you for a Washington hike and see the whales.
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