Customer Reviews

The Alchemy of Illness

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I started this book and was instantly caught up in the feeling-"She knows me, how is this possible?" The book is written with almost a poet's viewpoint of illness, but there is such love and comfort in it. Most of all, Kat knows what it feels like to hope and pray that "perhaps it was just for one time and it won't happen again". I know that this is what I think, everytime I am hit with another "flare" of fibromyalgia. I always think that perhaps this will be the last one. She also allows herself to finally give in to the feeling of chronic illness, to sink into the dark place; something that is so difficult to do! I felt as if I had written so much of it, myself, as she writes of "trying to get as much done as possible" on days when the illness is in remission--fully aware that a payment will be due, for overdoing. I do not agree with some of her "new age" philosophy aproaches, but it works for her and everyone must find his or her own way. I too, know what it feels like to feel the beginning of "it" coming on and refusing to admit what is happening and as" it" progresses, to finally just allow" it" to have it's way and sink into this void that is chronic illness. Kat also makes a wonderful point of stating that only people with an illness can truly appreciate "good health", as we never take a day for granted, when we feel wonderful. It is not the" norm", so therefore, it is so much more special. Obviously, healthy people never know what a gift, they have been handed. I also agree that when one is hit by a chronic illness, it allows us to stop and be quiet, to be able to reflect on life, our inner self and the beauty of God's nature, that perhaps we would not have bothered to do, if we had been able to keep on going at a breakneck pace. Therefore, there is some comfort in illness, that perhaps healthy people don't experience. I think this book is a "must read" for anyone with a chronic illness, as it gives permission to be ill, without having to constantly feel obliged to make excuses for all of the "whys" we must give, for broken vacations, visits and the necessity of changing the way we live--even when others don't understand --because, of course--"You don't look like you are ill" is heard so often by people with chronic illnesses.

This is a beautifully written book in which Kat Duff tells of her physical and emotional battle with chronic fatique syndrome. It is also an analysis of the historical and social positions of chronic and debilatating illness in western society. Duff has both emotional and intellectual depth; her text includes references to works by Virginia Woolf, Deepak Chopra, Oliver Sacks, Albert Kreinheder, John Donne, Audre Lorde, Carl Jung, Alice James, Susan Griffin, Susan Sontag, and many others. It is a beautiful example of the integration of mind-body.

"Oh, yes, I remember this place" (a quote from the book) are words that I think of whenever I begin to feel the twinge of illness settling in to my life. Kat Duff is an excellent author and wrote a captivating and well-researched book. There are too few books written about something so common as illness and this is the best I have read. I keep this book by my nightstand and break it out whenever I feel illness approaching.

I have had CFS for 10 years and have endlessly struggled to understand why the person I have become no longer "works' in the world out there. Katt Duff sheds a beautiful, gentle and insightful light on this question in her beautifully written account of the nature of illness. It is more than this though, it is a spellbindingly familliar (to those of us who are ill) account of the EXPERIENCE of being ill. In short I wept for myself when I read this book but was also profoundly relieved to, at last, make sense of an experience for which we are so little prepared, is profoundly affecting, and yet which is likely to come to us all one day - namely - being ill. A beautiful book. Read it if you are yourself unwell, if you want to understand someone close to you who is unwell, or if you just want to learn more about all aspects of the human condition: the inner as well as the outer, the dark as well as the light, the soft as well as the strong.

Kat Duff has written the bible for sufferers of chronic pain and illness. She deepens the discussion of the connection between mind, body, soul, and spirit to the level of true wisdom, purchased at the price of meticulous reflections on her own experience of physical misery and pain. This book is a must read for medical students, doctors, psychotherapists, and anyone who has struggled or is struggling to align themselves with healing in the face of frustration and despair. As a Jungian Analyst, I simply can't stop recommending this book to people I work with and to virtually everyone else know.

A magnficiently-written and luminous text, The Alchemy of Illness meditates upon the experience of being ill, using illustrations from the author's own experience, from myth, and from well-chosen classics of literature. Reading this lovely book is a healing experience itself, as the reader is reminded that illness is a quintessential part of the human experience, not the aberration that our current health and youth-obsessed culture presents it to be. I have sent this book to friends and colleagues all over the world. It is a joy to share this gem with others facing the challenge of responding to illness with grace and meaning, as Kat Duff encourages us to do.

For anyone suffering from chronic illness, this book is pure gold. Illness is not always just a tragedy and a waste. It can be an important part of the soul's journey. This book reminds us that illness has its messages and lessons and that it may just be what we needed in order to stop, listen, remember, let go... and eventually find our true selves and our true purpose.

Even though I do not hold some of the same beliefs as Kat Duff this is a fascinating book. I don't see how anyone could read it and not come away with a new gem of understanding to cherish, polish and revisit often.

I bought this book in 1993, shortly after being finally diagnosised with Fibromyalgia. I had a doctor who was doing research on the subject and I got lucky. About the book: Thankfully I picked this book up, because it saved my life, more than once, from the throws of Depression of being in Chronic Pain. It reset my mind about how to live with a condition that for the most part, does not react well to drugs (even Lyrica), and how to get beyond depression, hopelessness and anger.

If you are reading this and saying, "well I don't have Fibro, or CFS, I would highly recommend this book to ANYONE with a chronic condition that threatens their quality of life, or the quality of life to anyone they love.

I am now going to be sending one out to a friend in the UK whose life has been altered to nil by severe migranes that make it impossible for her to function. The funny thing about chronic illness,it does not matter what the label is. When the quality of your life closes around you, the type of illness takes on a simular path: Isolation.

Read this book, or read it if you have a loved one who is chronically ill. It will change your life.

This is a fairly good book for someone facing a chronic illness but is a bit hoeky if you ask me.