Reading About Autoimmune Conditions: Where to Start
A guide to our Autoimmune Conditions shelf — fourteen anthologies of first-person testimony, from lupus, MS, and Hashimoto's to scleroderma, Sjögren's, and vasculitis.
· By The Editors
The press does not currently name a clinical reviewer of record. Read about contributor roles and the review process before using health information. Editors & Contributors.
An autoimmune diagnosis carries a strange double blow: the illness itself, and the vertigo of learning your own defenses caused it. Add the years many people spend being told their symptoms are stress, and the loneliness compounds. What the voices in these books offer is the moment of being understood — by people whose bodies made the same turn, and who found ways to live well anyway.
Our Autoimmune Conditions shelf holds fifty first-person accounts per volume. Here is the shelf, mapped.
The well-known names
- Wolf Pack: Lupus Living Stories
- MS and Me: Multiple Sclerosis Stories
- Hashi's Journey: Hashimoto's Treatment Stories
- Grave Matters: Graves' Disease Stories
- Gluten Goodbye: Celiac Recovery Stories
- Spine Stories: Ankylosing Spondylitis Stories
The rarer roads
- Dry Spell: Sjögren's Syndrome Living Stories
- Hardened Resolve: Scleroderma Living Stories
- Muscle Through: Myasthenia Gravis Stories
- Skin and Muscle: Dermatomyositis Stories
- Vessel Voices: Vasculitis Treatment Stories
- Added Strength: Addison's Disease Stories
- Liver Lessons: Autoimmune Hepatitis Stories
- Connected: MCTD Living Stories
From the Reading Room
Companion pieces include living with lupus, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, Hashimoto's, and JAK inhibitors.
The whole shelf lives in our Autoimmune Conditions collection; rheumatoid arthritis itself is shelved under Orthopedic & Joint Health.
Sources and further reading
- Autoimmune Diseases. MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine, updated January 2024.
- Autoimmune Diseases. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, reviewed March 2023.
- Autoimmune diseases. Office on Women's Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, May 2026.
These books are companion reading, not rheumatology advice. Autoimmune disease is deeply individual; treatment decisions belong with your specialist.
The Reading Room publishes personal stories and editorial notes from our press. Everything here is companion reading — never medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. For guidance about your own health, please speak with a qualified clinician. Read how we collect and edit patient testimony in our Editorial Standards, or meet the editors on our Editors & Contributors page.
If this piece was useful, the volumes below hold fifty full-length accounts from people who have been through it — the part an article can only summarise.
