Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness Quotes

“We cannot back down from the idea that we are deserving of support and understanding in our time of need, but the reality is we might not get it from the people we expect it from.”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

“Choosing to respond to each new crisis in your daily life in a comfortable and effective way doesn’t mean you’ve given up on finding solutions to the overall problem, it simply means you’re smart enough to want to suffer less. Acceptance isn’t defeat: It’s a declaration of self-respect under irrefutable circumstances. This is where you are and you’re going to make the best out of every moment of it.”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

“Your disease does not disqualify you from love, career advancements, or a positive self-image. Once you begin to balance your perception of yourself with the reality of your disease, you’ll be able to start making plans for your future. There are tools you can integrate into your life to help you alter your energy level, diminish the limitations of your disabilities, and increase your day-to-day stamina.”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

“Managing chronic illness means developing strategies to assist you in moving forward with your life’s greater focus, and with as minimal suffering as possible. Don’t head-butt your disease, outsmart it.”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

“Whether you’ve been diagnosed, are in treatment, or are still struggling to put a name to the disease that is haunting you, you need to find acceptance. It’s not defeat. It’s not giving up. It’s learning how to continue growing, striving, and thriving even when chronic illness stands resolutely in your way.”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

“Yes, your disease will take up its own roomy space in your mind, but you can have a life that exists outside of your illness.”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

“Much of this book has been about learning to accept the limitations of your disease, finding joy in your new reality, and giving yourself the chance to excel in a way that best supports your health. What I hope you’ve also come to understand is that you deserve to thrive, to seek your ultimate happiness, and to not believe that feeling better than you did yesterday is enough.”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

“Planning is key to a more predictable life with chronic illness. Your doctors won’t be able to tell you when the next flare will strike, but if you start preparing for it now, there’s little to worry about when it arrives. Knowing you’ve planned for the potential outcomes of your symptoms is a responsible move, an almost freeing one. Even if things don’t pan out perfectly, you’ve made an active attempt to prepare. You’ve taken control over what small things you do have control over.”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

“At the end of the day, it’s about creativity. It’s about outsmarting your symptoms and being ready and waiting with a plan when they come barreling around the corner. You’re already at an advantage, because you know what’s coming.”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

“Don’t be ashamed of doing what you need to do to survive.”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

“With chronic illness, the more run down you become, the harder it is to manage your daily life. It’s important to do everything possible to stop a symptom before it starts.”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

“You may begin to ask yourself: When will a flare-up strike next? What will I do if I can’t call in sick? What happens to my insurance if I’m fired? Will my job really take me back when I’m well again? Having a disease doesn’t mean lowering your expectations about your career, but instead expecting a different skill set from yourself.”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

“Learning how and when to ask for help is going to be a huge asset to you in life.”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

“we must respond to each new crisis in a comfortable and effective way, instead of fighting against it until we’ve exhausted ourselves.”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

“Learning to talk to your family about your disease is one of the largest hurtles you’ll encounter. Educating them about your disease can sometimes feel like trying to teach advanced trigonometry to a four-year-old.”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

“We get to decide if our diagnosis is going to steal our joy, identity, determination, our compassion and empathy for others, and most importantly our worthiness.”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

“The disease is not all of what makes up your character.”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

“You are not “always” inconveniencing people. You are not “never” feeling well enough to see your friends. You may just be having a particularly bad flare up.”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

“what other people think, say, and do stems from their own feelings and experiences and is not a commentary on our worthiness.”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

“Shame can be sneaky. It tries to tell you that you are not good enough. My personal experience with a chronic illness allows for special empathy and compassion for those who experience chronic illnesses or pain.”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

“It’s time to stare down the face of your disease and say: I know you, I hear you, and you can scream all you want, but I’ve still got a life to live.”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

“It’s those who are in the murkiest part of their pre-diagnosis that often need the most support.”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

“accepting the notion that you have a chronic illness is truly the first step in learning how to cope with your symptoms and the roadblocks they’ve erected in your life.”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

“Patients wanted to connect with other people who had gone through their same journey.”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

“Family and friends felt that the disease “wasn’t real”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

“A misdiagnosis can send a patient veering off into a series of unfortunate directions; wrong medications, dangerous unnecessary therapies, and personal turmoil are just a few of the potential outcomes. For example, they may be misdiagnosed with a mental illness and spend years trying to cure something autoimmune with verbal therapy. Or, they may be given an inaccurate diagnosis of a common disease, when in fact, their disease is rare.”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

“Finding out the exact illness you have puts you on a clearer path of treatment and can help you to find a more specific support group.”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

“Acceptance isn’t about making you weak from the battle of fighting your disease; it’s about building a smart and capable foundation from which a relapse can’t knock you down.”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

“Acceptance isn’t defeat: It’s a declaration of self-respect under irrefutable circumstances. This is where you are and you’re going to make the best out of every moment of it.”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms

“Throughout it all, it seems like everybody has an opinion. The disease may be yours and yours alone, but the people in your life will have their own thoughts and judgments about how you handle the impact of chronic illness on everything from your daily routine and medication choices to major life decisions. You’ll have to decide whose opinion is worth listening to, and whose you should be blocking out.”
― Ilana Jacqueline, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms