Stop being your symptoms and start being yourself

Do you suffer from ongoing pain or other chronic medical symptoms such as fatigue, lower back pain, arthritis, acid indigestion, insomnia, or migraines? Do they interfere with your family time or your work? Have you been forced to give up activities that you enjoy? Do you feel as though your symptoms are taking over your life?Thirty percent of the population suffer from chronic debilitating illnesses and pain that respond only partially to conventional medicine. But this doesn't mean that there is no relief in sight.Dr. Arthur Barsky, psychiatrist and pioneer in the field of mind-body medicine, has found that changing the way you think about your illness can have a remarkable effect on how you experience your symptoms. Two people with the same symptoms can live dramatically different lives because they think about and react to their symptoms differently.At Harvard Medical School, Dr. Barsky developed "Stop Being Your Symptoms and Start Being Yourself," a breakthrough six-week program designed to overcome the symptoms of chronic illnesses of every kind. Based on more than twenty years of firsthand clinical experience, his scientifically tested treatment plan is unique, powerful, and simple to learn. This groundbreaking program teaches patients to master the five psychological factors that make chronic symptoms persist through hundreds of exercises, worksheets, and patient examples.You may not be able to completely eliminate your medical symptoms. But it is possible to control your symptoms rather than letting them control you-to manage your pain, fatigue, insomnia, and anxiety. You can minimize your symptoms, learn new coping skills, and do more to make sure that your symptoms are not robbing your life of meaning and pleasure.Stop being your symptoms-and start living the life you deserve.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Self-Help, Nonfiction, Fiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.