Sophie Lee, creator of IBS Tales, chronicles her own personal battle
Friday, March 30th, 2007If you look at my “Reviews & In the News” page, you’ll notice a new book review for Romance, Riches, and Restrooms written by Sophie Lee. She’s the IBS sufferer in the U.K. who created IBS Tales - a wonderful site where people with IBS can connect with each other by sharing their experiences with what is so often an embarrassing and isolating disorder. I bookmarked her site several years ago and have been a frequent visitor ever since.
Yet, despite spending hours reading through the site’s hundreds of personal stories (I’m masochistically partial to the “Embarrassing Tales” category), I somehow missed what is perhaps the site’s true gem. You see, in addition to running IBS Tales, launching a separate IBS treatment review site, and frequently updating her own blog, Sophie also found the time and energy to write her own E-book. It’s called IBS and Me: Living with Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I recently had the pleasure of reading it.
Wait. I left out one very important point that will only make the case for reading this E-book even more compelling. It’s FREE! That’s right, you can read Sophie’s story on her site or download a PDF file by subscribing to her newsletter. Now, on to the review…
When you first look at the length of this E-book – at 62 pages, it’s certainly compact – you might assume that it’s light on substance. But that would be a mistake because the “good things come in small packages” principle definitely applies here.
Putting her professional experience as a journalist to expert use, Sophie manages to skillfully compress fifteen years of living with constipation-predominant IBS into an engaging, easy-to-read, and yes, quite often funny, “mini-memoir” that just about any IBS sufferer will easily identify with. She carefully selects only the most relevant personal anecdotes, wisely avoids overloading the narrative with too much dry, factual IBS information, and picks just the right spots to lighten up the mood with refreshing doses of dry, self-deprecating British wit that will definitely make you chuckle out loud.
What I liked most about this story is its focus on not only the physical symptoms, but also on the day-to-day psychological mindset and the toll that IBS took on her confidence. As I know from personal experience, once IBS hits your confidence, every aspect of your life becomes exponentially more challenging and difficult to cope with.
The main reason Sophie shared her personal journey in such a public way was because she wanted to let other IBS sufferers know that they are not alone with the life challenges they face, and she also wanted to share all the helpful information she’s accumulated over the years. And she’s really done a terrific job. But don’t take my word for it. Go check it out for yourself! You’ll be glad you did.
- Tim
