Toni Bernhard

On a vacation to Paris with her husband, the author came down with what she hoped was just jet lag, but when the fatigue continued, she went to a doctor who diagnosed her with the grippe. Yet she remained mostly bedridden until it was time to go home. As she puts it, “In May of 2001, I got sick and I never recovered.” As she describes the effects of the disease, it is like:

"…having the symptoms that accompany a severe flu, including the dazed sick feeling and the aches and pains, but without the fever, the sore throat, or the cough. To imagine it, multiply the fatigues and aches and pains of the flu by an order of magnitude. Add in a heart that’s constantly pounding with a kind of wired, oppressive fatigue that people associate with severe jet lag, making it hard to concentrate or even watch TV—let alone nap or sleep at night. "

She had to leave her job as a law professor and stay home. Her condition is Myalgic Encephalomyetis, more commonly known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, or ME/CFS. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention there is no cure.

Although filled with Bernhard’s own personal experiences, this is not a book about the disease. It is about how to cope with chronic illness. It is a practical guide filled with Buddhist techniques for dealing with the recurring issues of pain, self-blame, fear, stressful thoughts, uncertainty, fatigue, burnout, loneliness and feeling ignored that come with chronic illness.

Starting from the Buddha’s first noble truth, that life is dukkha, the Pali word usually translated as suffering. Bernhard explains that this is a natural part of every human’s experience because it will include times of “birth, aging, illness, death, sorrow, pain, grief, getting what we don’t want, not getting what we want, and losing what we cherish.” She goes on to explain the psychological and spiritual techniques used in Buddhism to alleviate the suffering associated with these aspects of life, and how she has used them to alleviate the suffering that she has experienced with ME/CFS, which can be used by sufferers from other chronic diseases and by their caregivers.… (mais)