MSI Press Blog

  Today's back story is about the book, Living Well with Chronic Illness by Joanna Charnas From the author: In the mid to late 1990s, I was particularly sick with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, an illness I’d lived with since I was nineteen. During these years, I had several run-ins with large bureaucracies, including the Massachusetts Department of Motor Vehicles and Harvard Community Health Plan, the largest HMO in the state. After I’d successfully obtained the services I needed, I’d tell my father about these confrontations, carefully leaving the distress they’d caused me out of the narrative. My father repeatedly responded, “You ought to write about that.” I was a Social Worker for a large AIDS service organization at the time, and my reply was always, “My experiences aren’t unique. My clients often encounter these same problems.” We had some version of this conversation for a couple of years. At the same time, I had an otherworldly feeling I should be writing something. I’d been p...

  Excerpt from Living Well with Chronic Illness (Charnas) - Hard Decisions, Mistakes, and Choices What was I doing, sitting on the floor in a short, white skirt in the jury room of the Boston courthouse? I’d lost my mind. I’d been called for jury duty and badly wanted to serve. I thought if I dressed up a little, I might improve my chances. I hadn’t been feeling well, but I disregarded this in my desire to sit on a jury. I put on my knee-length skirt and sweater set and merrily set off.  The chairs in the jury-pool room were hard and uncomfortable. I sat there for a long time. After a couple hours, I began to feel lightheaded and weak. This should’ve been my clue to request dismissal from the jury pool. Instead, I thought I might feel better if I put my feet up, so I rested them on an empty chair. That didn’t help. I continued to feel worse and began having trouble sitting up. Other people were sitting on the floor, so in my short, winter-white outfit, I lowered myself and lea...

  Excerpt from   Living Well with Chronic Illness Tae Kwon Do I use the five tenets of Tae Kwon Do, a Korean martial art, to structure my attitude. The tenets guide the practice of this sport, but they also offer an elegant template for shaping an effective attitude. The tenets are as follows:   ·        courtesy; ·        integrity; ·        perseverance; ·        self-control; and ·        indomitable spirit.   When you feel you’re in a rut, these five tenets may help you move toward a better attitude. I’ve kept them framed in my office for over twenty years as a constant reminder of how I want to think, feel, and behave. For more posts about the late Joanna Charnas and her works, click HERE , 25% discount on paperback with code FF25 at www.msipress.com/shop Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter F...

 In honor of Caturday, we are sharing a picture of Joanna Charnas's foster failure. It probably is difficult to give up a foster cat -- one gets attached. To get a better understanding about Joanna, read her book, A Movie Lover's Search for Romance .  A diverting and informative story of searching for love in mid-life by a divorced social worker, who intertwines entertaining stories of successful love interests with well-known movies containing similar plots and themes. Written as diary entries covering a 15-year period, the author shares openly, in detail, and with insights her experiences with dating, friendships, affairs, and relationships. Written candidly with a light hand and turns of phrase that reflect her personality and make the book hard to put down. Joanna has also written award-winning non-fiction about coping with chronic illness. Check out: Managing chronic illness demands constant mindfulness and management. It’s a process that constantly evolves over a lifetim...

Sadness  Sometimes, living with chronic illness can make us feel deeply sad. It’s okay to occasionally fall apart. Cry if you need to. After a painful and unexpected episode of particularly bad health, I often found myself overcome by sadness and despair. I would be doing the dishes, making the bed, or watching a television commercial, and I’d start to weep. On top of everything else, I then felt stupid. But so what? No one besides you cares if you sob while you wash the dinner dishes! However, if sadness overwhelms you and you can rarely shake it off, you may be clinically depressed. Then you might consider consulting a therapist for counseling or antidepressant medications. Therapy and/or medication won’t ensure your happiness, but they may alleviate the oppressive quality of your sadness. While it’s natural to feel sad, try not to dwell on your despair longer than necessary. Only you know how long you need to focus on your sad feelings. But if you find yourself weep...

Joanna J. Charnas is a social worker with over thirty years of experience as a licensed mental health provider. She received her master’s degree from Boston University School of Social Work in 1988 and has earned the highest level of social work licensure in California (Licensed Clinical Social Worker, 2001.) She has worked in numerous service sectors, all of which placed fragile people in her care and enhanced her clinical acumen and skills. Since 1995, she has worked specifically with people with mental and physical illnesses. She published on HuffPost Blog for two and a half years, and her writing has appeared in PopSugar, The San Francisco Review of Books, and SteadyHealth. More about her writing can be found at  www.joannacharnas.com Her first book ,   Living Well with Chronic Illness ,  was released August 25, 2015. Her second book,  1 00 Tips and Tools for Managing Chronic Illness , was released in April 2018. Her third book, A Movie Lover's Sear...

Still on the move, MSI Press staff has reached San Diego -- attending a conference this weekend. San Diego is home to MSI Press author, Joanna Charnas. So, we met for lunch and fun at Tandoori House, and we talked about Joanna's forthcoming book, A Movie Lover's Search for Romance . And also about her wnning previous books:  Living Well with Chornic Illness   and  1 00 Tips and Tools for Managing Chronic Illness . And we made THREE podcasts! Check Joanna's book pages in a couple of weeks. We will place them there -- and on this blog (so do keep following our blog)! And if you want more than inside information, sign up for our newslettert!

Joanna Charnas, author of Living Well with Chronic Illness and 100 Tips and Tools for Managing Chronic Illness,   at first thought that she culd not travel from San Diego to New Delhi, given her state of chronic illness  So, she turned down multiple invitations from a friend in India to visit. Then, her nephew married a young woman from Delhi, and the compelling desire to see their wedding took over in spite of concerns about the level of medical care available in India, And she found -- joy in the experience. Read about her experience in her post in yoursnews.india: You Will Dance: Finding Joy in an Indian Wedding . Read more posts by and about Joanna Charnas here :