Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

What Doesn't Kill You: A Life with Chronic Illness - Lessons from a Body in Revolt by Tessa Miller

34 reviews

wildflower37's review

challenging informative

4.5

I have spent my career attempting to truly understand the lives experience of chronic illness. This book brings so much depth, along with honesty and urgency, to encourage empathy and allyship. I will be urging my colleagues to read and discuss this book. I plan to return the library copy and purchase one for myself as a reference.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness and Medical trauma

Moderate: Addiction and Emotional abuse

alexandrap529's review

emotional hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, and Sexual assault

lisabreads's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

 What Doesn’t Kill You by Tessa Miller is a chronic illness memoir. The author has Crohn’s Disease, like I do, but like many chronic illnesses, our symptoms and treatment paths are completely different. I did find this one leaning heavily on her experience in US healthcare and her persistent infections with C. Diff, neither of which I have personally experienced. She also goes a lot into her own personal history with abuse and the affects that had on her mental health during this experience as well, which was very personal to her.
So if you are reading this as a primer on Crohn’s, you’ll get some great information, especially if you are a US patient. But you will also get a lot of personal chapters that you would expect from a memoir.

Having Crohn’s can feel isolating as most people don’t love much “bathroom” talk so I appreciate anyone willing to share their story so I can feel a little less alone. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Eating disorder, and Fatphobia

diversifyyourshelf's review

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

Miller places a heavy emphasis on the mental and emotional toll of chronic illness, issues I don’t see discussed nearly enough! It is lonely and hard and exhausting being sick all the time, and she 1) shows us we’re not alone and validates those feelings and 2) offers help and advice from someone who has been there. 

 

I really enjoyed this book, and I do highly recommend it, with some caveats.  On one hand, I want everyone I know to read this, but on the other, Miller’s experiences, even before her diagnosis, are quite traumatic. There are descriptions of physical abuse, addiction, domestic violence, sexual assault, eating disorders (check the content warnings for the extensive list of possible triggers). 

 

I’m not at all saying that Miller shouldn’t have written this part of her story – in a lot of ways, I feel it was necessary to give a holistic view of her life experience - but it can be difficult to read. While a lot of Miller’s writing is highly specific to her and to her own diagnosis of Crohn’s, she does a good job towards the middle and end of each chapter in connecting her story to the broader chronic illness community. For sensitive readers, it may be helpful to skip the starts of each chapter. 

 

This book undoubtedly helped me, and there are actionable steps that I plan to take based on it! If you are chronically ill or are close to someone who is chronically ill, I advise you to pick this up. Thank you to Tessa Miller for using your voice to help the rest of us. And thank you to Henry Holt for sending me an advanced copy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Death, and Grief