Live Your Life, Not Your Diagnosis: How to Manage Stress and Live Well with Your New Health Condition

The Inside Guide to MS has proven to be a fantastic read! I have Celiac Disease, like Multiple Sclerosis a diagnosis I will carry with me for life, and in my case it has come with several 'other diagnosis' as well because it went un-diagnosed until I was well into adulthood.Andrea Hanson's book offers a way to view both life, and a diagnosis like this, that takes things out of the realm of "no" and puts it in terms of "yes." Instead of telling yourself how tough your life has just become, and focusing on all of the things you are going to no longer be able to do, or you are going to live without, Andrea Hanson's book shows you how to find your negative thinking patterns, and helps you find positive ways to approach both your thinking, and your diagnosis.One of my favorite quotes from the book (and yes, I've been highlighting lines, and taking notes of useful pieces as I go) is "I'll show you how to find true, unyielding hope within yourself, however much you may be questioning its presence or strength right now." There are times, with any major diagnosis when we get bogged down by the what ifs, and negative possibilities, but Andrea Hanson's book includes ways to work your way back up from that spiraling "Thought Storm" and find your center once more.In the beginning she says her father told her this was "just one more brick in your backpack" and she could handle it. I remember the day I was told I had to go gluten free. I printed a 7 page can and can't eat off the internet and went to my favorite restaurant, and my favorite waitress asked, "why did you even come here," after taking one look at it, "you can't ever eat here again." My proverbial brick had just crushed me. I was with someone else, so had decided I would have a soda while they ate. The owner came out, looked over the seven pages, and asked if the kitchen could keep them, "I'll mark them up for the cooks, and everything we make for you will be special, it will be gluten free, we'll figure out anything you want to eat... we want you healthy, and if this," he waved the pages in his hands, "is what it takes for us to help you, we'll do it!" Suddenly that same brick felt feather light. At the time, the analogy of a brick never occurred to me, for me it felt more like sink or swim... I am indebted to Andrea Hanson for giving me better mental images, fantastic tools, and great perspectives from which to view how I live.For years I have joked, "I could die of starvation from eating," because gluten shuts down a Celiac's digestive system... I think, instead of merely hiding behind humor, this book will give me some additional, both positive and healthy, ways of thinking about both my diagnosis, and my gluten free lifestyle (which I have for nearly a decade refused to call either a diet or dietary restrictions.)Thank you, Andrea Hanson, for taking the time to put out this thoughtful, and insightful, book... and giving me good reason to stop and think.

Andrea Hanson give beautifully-written, straight-forward, and practical advice about living with multiple sclerosis. The advice is helpful to all readers whether or not they have a diagnosis of MS. After meeting her mentor, Brooke Castilo, she learned that she did not have to change her life to change the way she felt about it.The book is written in a very personal and open style, full of anecdotes from the authors medical and personal experience. She also writes a lot about her experience as a life coach and in working with other MS patients. She writes about meditation, exercise, and diet, but most of the book is about fostering a positive mindset. She challenges the fear and self-doubt associated with MS along with many of the common conceptions about the disease. She emphasizes that we have more control over our emotions and our thoughts than we are led to believe. Much of the advice in this books reminds of the cognitive school of psychology or of rational emotive behavioral therapy. She also gives some practical advice about how to manage stress and purge self-downing thoughts.She does not write a lot about the specific details of her MS history, but she does tell some stories about her personal life. She writes about how taxing it was to complete a cycling charity event for MS when she had to ride eighty miles a day. She talks about how she used her positive-thinking techniques after completing the first day to maintain her composure.She gives some practical advice about how to maintain high energy, get adequate sleep, and be honest with yourself. She advocates an individualized approached rather than a one-size-fits-all mentality. She explains that she discovered that avoiding corn helps to minimize her symptoms, but this may not be true for everyone with MS. In terms of trying new things, she favors layering (trying one thing at a time in a controlled environment) rather than a shotgun approach.

OK, some will say I must be biased, since Andrea is my sister. But my job (I'm a law professor) requires writing for a living, so I have a lot of firsthand knowledge of how hard it is to write clearly, concisely, and informatively. Hint: It's hard! And I'm telling you honestly, Andrea is a hell of a good writer (much better than me).This book explains so vividly and clearly what strategies are best to deal with a diagnosis of MS (and her advice should transfer very effectively to other medical challenges). She puts in just the right amount of humor, to soften up her no-nonsense style. A good subtitle might be: "MS with no BS"!This book is short, sweet, and to the point; well-organized, packed with useful information, with crystal-clear honesty and directness. It is easy for me to see why Andrea has been so successful as a life coach. I always thought she had just the right personality for that, but now, reading her book, I can experience firsthand how effective her communication skills are when taking that professional role. As anyone with any experience in writing knows, the more concise and easy-to-read a book or article is, the harder the writer worked on it. Andrea must have really been sweating this one out! I only hope I can communicate half as well to my law students!Just in the time between reading through the book and posting this review, I had a colleague at my school tell me how helpful it is (she has a close friend who was just diagnosed with MS).

Auf amazon.com hat dieses Buch durch die Bank fünf Sterne bekommen, und ich stimme in diesen Chor mit ein.Die wichtigste Botschaft in diesem Buch war für mich: Unterscheide zwischen dem, was Fakt ist und deinen Hirngespinsten. Gut, sie sagt ganz neutral "thoughts", aber ich übersetze das eben subjektiv.Die Unsicherheit bei MS gehört zum Schwierigsten, was die Krankheit bereithält. Aber sich in einer gedanklichen Abwärtsspirale zu befinden, ist wenig hilfreich.Ich muß das Buch noch einmal lesen und vielleicht noch ein weiteres Mal, um so viel wie möglich daraus umzusetzen, aber daran soll es nicht scheitern.Wenn Sie in einer Phase Ihrer MS sind, in der Sie festgefahren sind und jemanden brauchen, der Ihnen Anstöße gibt, um Ihr Leben wieder lebenswerter zu machen, ist dieses Buch richtig für Sie. So wie es für mich genau den Input geliefert hat, den ich gebraucht habe.

Bought for me as a gift. Designed for one recently diagnosed not as I am.