You Are Not Your Illness: Seven Principles for Meeting the Challenge (Simon & Schuster 1995)
Linda elatedly showing off the completed original manuscript of You Are Not Your Illness
While serious illness, injury, or disability can physically alter the course of your life, it can also cause great emotional upheaval. It is not uncommon to feel anger, frustration, grief, fear, and denial as you try to accept a new way of living. As you lose your ability to do things you once considered routine, you may even feel that you are losing your self-worth, that you physical condition is threatening your identity.
I have lived with multiple sclerosis for most of my adult life. In this remarkable and uplifting book, I delve deeply into my own experience to share with you the keys to regaining emotional and spiritual wholeness. Through a step-by-step process designed to show that real healing has little to do with the state of the physical body, I offer a compassionate and inspirational message to anyone whose sense of self is threatened by physical limitations. You Are Not Your Illness offers support, skills, and encouragement to those who want to embrace the challenge of living successfully with illness.
Comments from Linda’s readers:
“Your powerful words are still deeply inspiring, expanding the world of possibilities. I have taken a long journey to truly integrate the wisdom you offered in your book . . . to find the joy of living, no matter what was happening with my body.”
– Judith Zaruches, reader
“Your positive approach to life and living in the now is a message that benefits everyone. You are truly an inspiration to all.”
– Wendy Seleznov, reader and high school classmate of Linda Noble Topf
“Linda Noble Topf is profoundly inspiring. She is as riveting as anyone I have ever interviewed.”
– Joel Roberts, former prime time talk show host, KABC radio, Los Angeles
“I work with very injured people in my marriage and family therapy practice. Their lives have been altered dramatically. I picked up your book hoping for something I could pass on to my clients to make their lives easier. If only I had a photographic
memory so that I could remember every word. Thanks for the wonderful job you’ve done. You are truly an inspiration.”
– Rossana, reader
“Today, I found your site, Linda—what an inspiration you are! I needed to find out what other people with MS are doing, despite the fact that they have the disease. I looked at all your achievements and what you are involved with, and I am so impressed and inspired! If I achieve a fraction of your accomplishments, I will
feel successful. Thank you!”
– Roxanne Montano-Levizon, MS patient and chemical dependency counselor
“This is the most inspirational book I have read in a long time. The seven steps are more believable than other books I’ve read because the author went through it. I was tired of hearing advice from doctors and PhD’s who know what to say, but cannot understand unless they are actually in it. The author has multiple sclerosis and is confined to a wheelchair- so I thought to myself, if she can overcome her illness, so can I. Thanks to this book I realized that just because my life has changed doesn’t mean it has stopped.”
- Amazon.com Customer Review
“This book was just what I needed! I don’t have an illness, but I do have a job that takes over my life. Thanks to Linda’s book, I realized that I am not my job or my awards- I took her advice and compassionate words and was able to change my life around–by seeing the beauty in it. I lent this book a friend with cancer who feels the same. Thanks, Ms. Noble Topf. This book is a treasure for anyone coping with a chronic illness or any type of life change.”
- Amazon.com Customer Review
“There are plenty of books that seek to inspire by sharing personal experience, but Topf takes this that one needed step further by giving good and valid steps toward regaining one’s spiritual and emotional balance. Such a topic is quite an undertaking. Writing for anyone for a chronic illness can be quite difficult. Topf handles her material with knowledge, compassion, equanimity, and grace. Thank you.”
- Teri Robert, writer, patient advocate, Amazon.com customer
