Learning Sickness: A Year with Crohn’s Disease

by Jim Lang

There are many books about illness, but very few writers convey the courage and hope of battling a chronic illness as eloquently as Jim Lang. "Learning Sickness" is the compelling narrative of Jim’s battle with Crohn’s Disease. Diagnosed at the age of 26, Jim spent the next five years coming to terms with how to live with a chronic illness. During that time he fathered two children, earned a Ph.D., accepted his first teaching position, and launched a writing career. Jim Lang provides an absolutely unflinching look at the way the disease can penetrate into every aspect of a person's physical, emotional, and spiritual. He tackles the most sensitive areas of the disease with grace and skill, and wraps it all into a gripping narrative of illness and recovery that demonstrates how suffering can produce a special kind of wisdom. This book will help millions of Americans, and countless others around the globe, understand they do not suffer alone, and it will provide friends, families, and colleagues of sufferers with their first real glimpse into the toll the disease can take on their lives.

Genres: Medical, Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published March 30, 2004

Reviews

[Robert Maunder · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a psychiatrist who mostly provides help for people with serious chronic diseases, I haven’t found many memoirs to recommend to patients – the experience of illness is too personal and often too idiosyncratic for one person’s experience to apply well to another person. And I actively avoid the many, many books that purport to offer answers and cure. Learning Sickness is one book, however, that I have recommended to quite a few patients.
It is a very well written, honest description of a very significant year in the life of a young man with Crohn’s disease. The most valuable part, at least for my purposes, is that the book describes his transition from trying to live as if he was healthy to coming to accept that he has a disease. That arc is a journey that many people with chronic diseases will recognize and it is often an extraordinarily challenging one. It is all the more valuable to have a memoir from a person who has lived that transition, and brings the experience to life, because so many people have to find ways to deal with well-meaning friends and family who insist on equating acceptance with giving up. This is a book well worth reading.

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn't the next great American memoir. It is not genius. It sometimes falls into cliches. It is beautiful, however, because it is honest. Devastatingly honest. Anyone with Crohn's disease or anyone wishing to know about Crohn's disease (hell--anyone wishing to know about ANY chronic disease) should read this book. Though the author is quick to say that he does not expect his experiences to apply to everyone with Crohn's, I can tell you that every physical, emotional, and spiritual struggle the author writes about, I have felt a hundred times over. I am glad this book exists.

[Ayesha Siddiqua · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting more out of this book. While each person has their unique struggle with this illness, I felt the author left out a lot of spiritual, mental, emotional burden that comes with getting a chronic illness in your youth.
While he did not go at length about it, he very well described the story of learning to accept the disease, building trust towards doctors, and if you're a physician, you can learn the impact you hold on a person's life, and be more attuned to patient's needs.

[s_evan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't get past the intro story about something transphobic, which was really disappointing. Will likely pick up again as this was a random anecdote no doubt to draw in the reader, but for me, it made me have no interest in hearing from this person's perspective.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simultaneously heartbreaking and life-affirming.

[Marisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone that has been living with Crohn's Disease for over 10 years being able to read about someone else's struggle and going through the same things I went through made me feel connected and let me reaffirm that I wasn't the only one struggling with all the same issues that the author did. I have since loaned out this book to many people in my family and circle of friends to let them better understand what was going on in my body and in my mind during flare ups.

It's a quick read but a must have for a fellow Crohnie!

mt

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who has been living with Crohn's Disease for 15 years now, I found Lang's personal account very honest and relatable. I would highly recommend to anyone who is living with Crohn's or Colitis. Reading this book was a sort of therapy for me.

[Kristi Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! I related with it and I had to write down some of the phrases an they were perfect to what I was going through.