Living with a chronic illness is complicated, and it has taken me decades to learn and consolidate tips and tricks that have helped me Do Life with my chronic illnesses. I’m not alone in this, and any resource that offered some insight into what I could expect and what was available for me would have been a huge help. That was the motivation behind Pippa Stacey’s latest book, How to Do Life with a Chronic Illness which I was grateful to receive a copy from the lovely people at Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

With the subtitle “Reclaim your identity, create independence, and find your way forward”, it might seem that Stacey is reaching quite far with the aims of this book. The dedication reads, “For anybody newly diagnosed with chronic illness. It may not feel like it right now, but there are so many amazing moments ahead of you”. That is the message that fills every page of this book, and some of you might be thinking, oh no, this isn’t for me, it’s way too perky. A book like this can very easily end up like that, and believe me, I’ve read them, but How to Do Life with a Chronic Illness has been carefully written to offer information and experience, not pretty words.

Stacey’s voice is honest, vulnerable and down to earth. As she relays extremely useful information, she backs it up with her anecdotes and her own experience, clearly subtitling these sections as ‘My experience’. I was impressed with the wide variety of information included, as well as the amount of interviews with guests. There’s even a part where Stacey opened up the floor to her Instagram followers, asking them to share what hobbies they found work for them as inspiration for readers. I thought that was a brilliant idea and showed just how wonderfully varied our community is.

‘Hobbies and Interests’ is sandwiched between ‘Rediscovering Your Identity’ and ‘Pacing and Condition Management’ in How to Do Life with a Chronic Illness. The way Stacey has arranged her chapters is great, leading each topic naturally into one that corresponds with it. She hasn’t shied away from the difficult topics, either. While she remains positive that people with chronic illnesses can do a lot of things, Stacey has lived through the difficult times. She has ME/CFS and candidly talks about developing the condition, how she tried to power through it and how it felt to realise her new normal.

Like Stacey, I have ME/CFS and have been in that position. I also have several other chronic illnesses, most of which I had before developing ME/CFS, while my situation was a bit different, we both had to struggle with learning to live with an energy-limiting condition. It took me a long time, and a great therapist, to get to the point where I felt like I knew who I was again. A book like How to Do Life with a Chronic Illness would have been a very powerful tool to have in my arsenal.

A book can’t stop medical gaslighting from happening, however, knowledge is power. Until I developed ME/CFS, I lived in a happy delusional bubble where I believed medical professionals helped you if you were sick. Oh, how I was wrong. Stacey’s self-advocacy chapter is a must-read for every chronically ill, disabled and neurodivergent person. It has great advice on how to make a complaint, including a fabulous draft email that you can use. This is a resource that I (sadly) know that I am going to use a lot.

As someone who struggles to use their hands to write I was grateful, and honestly, astonished, to find at the end of the introduction a wee note with a QR code and a URL to download the end-of-chapter journal prompts digitally! It was such a simple idea, and yet I’ve never seen it done before. While I skipped the journal prompts, I did look over them as I went, and they looked to be very thoughtfully put together. They will be a great help to someone who has just been diagnosed or who is struggling with their chronic illnesses.

My one small complaint about How to Do Life with a Chronic Illness is that although Stacey has done her best to make this a book that applies to all types of chronic illness, at times it does read more aimed at people with energy-limiting illnesses. That is to be expected, as Stacey only has her own experiences to go from, and the only reason I’m mentioning this is for other readers like myself who have multiple chronic health conditions. There are thousands of chronic health conditions, so do not expect this book to cover every situation.

Likewise, as someone who is quite far along in their chronic illness journey and feels confident in their identity, this book was not designed for people like me. That is not to say that it is not useful for more experienced people, there is a lot of useful information in this book, and some of it I only learned in recent years!

Also, keep in mind that Stacey is British, so information such as benefits is UK-related. This doesn’t mean non-UK readers will find How to Do Life with a Chronic Illness useless, however. The same thing occurred when I read Demystifying Disability by Emily Ladau (Ladau is American) and it is the book I recommend the most.

How to Do Life with a Chronic Illness by Pippa Stacey is a great addition to any chronically ill person’s bookshelf with resources for everyone.