Being (Sick) Enough: Thoughts on Invisible Illness, Childhood Trauma, and Living Well When Surviving is Hard

Jessica Graham

2025년 1월 · North Atlantic Books

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Wise and witty essays on navigating pain, sex, trauma, spirituality, addiction, recovery, and grief from queer neurodivergent trauma resolution guide Jessica Graham

In an unapologetic look at living well with chronic illness, writer and meditation teacher Jessica Graham offers smart, funny, raw, and mindful insights on untangling—and embracing—the messy realities of being a human alive on this planet today.

Graham gives us permission to accept care—and accept that it’s ok to want care. They weave together personal stories and practical wisdom, grounded in their queer, chronically ill, and neurodivergent identities. They offer their take on managing symptoms, getting creative, setting boundaries, and healing from ableist tropes like “you don’t look that sick” and “we’re all a little ADHD.”

Graham also shares vulnerable personal history: the adverse childhood experiences that rewired their body and brain. The workaholism and addictions that kept their pain lying just below the surface. How illness and trauma intersect to obscure the knowledge that we’re each enough, wholly as we are.

Graham explores the parts of chronic illness life that don’t get enough airtime: how can we center sex and pleasure when pain gets in the way? How can we live well…while living through late-stage capitalist hell? How can we come into relationship with our pain without falling prey to self-blame, magical thinking, or toxic positivity?

Wise and embodied, fearless and necessary, Being (Sick) Enough is both a wild awakening and a love letter to your whole self: the pains and suffering, joys and brightness, and vital connections that hold each of us as we navigate what it means to be here, like this, right now.

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Jessica Graham is a trauma resolution guide, specializing in complex-developmental trauma and post-traumatic growth. They are also a meditation teacher, chronic pain coach, sex and relationship guide, speaker, and author of Good Sex: Getting Off Without Checking Out. Jessica is certified as both a ReBloom Post-Traumatic Growth Guide and a Grief Recovery Specialist. They have been trained and are qualified to practice in Brainspotting and are a senior teacher of Shinzen Young’s meditation system. Jessica’s work can be found on many apps and they have offered workshops and retreats at various centers internationally, including Esalen Institute. Their work can also be found in The Great Courses’ Masters of Mindfulness. In addition to this, Jessica is an acting teacher and an award-winning actor and filmmaker. Their upcoming book of essays and poems will be released by North Atlantic books in January 2025.