Showing Up Anyway: Working with Invisible Illness Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe holding down a job while living with an illness that does not show. Conditions include multiple sclerosis, ME, Crohn's, ulcerative colitis, endometriosis that took nine years to name, chronic migraine, epilepsy, bipolar II, coeliac disease, chronic kidney disease, young-onset Parkinson's, hearing loss, severe asthma, complex regional pain syndrome, fibromyalgia, a stroke at thirty-something and panic attacks in an aircraft galley. The jobs are as varied: a primary teacher whose legs turn to wet sand at three o'clock, a Sydney bus driver, a warehouse worker written up for her pace, a nurse who fainted in the supply cupboard and now works sitting down, a hairdresser of thirty-nine years, an electrician with sugar lows up a ladder, a barista whose shoulder slips out, a pastry cook who cannot eat bread, an Iowa farmer at harvest, an emergency dispatcher, a police constable and a grocery cashier of sixty-two who cannot afford to stop. Places run from Bengaluru to Belfast and Accra to Amsterdam. Many describe the first talk with a manager and the small changes that followed: a stool, a later start, headphones, a quiet room, a water bottle on the lectern. Not every workplace was kind: one woman received a written warning, a carpenter put his tools away for good, and several moved into smaller or different roles.

Who it's for

For people working with a long-term condition that colleagues cannot see, those deciding whether to tell an employer, and the managers, coworkers and partners who want to help.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 283 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.