Heal Me: In Search of a Cure by Julia Buckley. No Advance Reader Copy included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here.
When Julia Buckley reaches for a cup of coffee one day in 2012 she doesn't expect it to trigger a chronic pain in her arm that would last four years. Yet, that's exactly what happens.
Is the pain a disorder in its own right or a symptom of an underlying medical condition?
As is so often the case with chronic pain, especially when the person living with the pain is a woman, Buckley struggles to receive a definitive diagnosis.
Buckley eventually quits her job as a travel journalist and moves back in with her mother because of the impact chronic pain has on her life.
Her experiences with doctors and other health care professionals range from the positive to the frustrating and the downright dismissive. While some doctors try to find the cause of Buckley's pain, others dismiss it as being 'all in her head' and therefore not within their remit to treat.
Again, an all too common occurrence for people — especially women — dealing with a chronic illness.
However, when all that is left are pain management strategies that focus on learning to live with chronic pain rather than attempting to cure it, Buckley decides to look for alternative therapies.
What follows is a quest for a cure that takes Buckley all over the world. She tries medical marijuana in America. Visits the baths at Lourdes. Sees an herbalist in an extremely remote area of China. Sees traditional healers in multiple countries including a witch doctor in Haiti. Has a session with a guru in Austria and goes to see a 'miracle worker' in Brazil.
A few years ago I would have rolled my eyes at almost all of the alternative treatments Buckley tries and wondered how the hell she got sucked into trying them in the first place. And I still found much of this book frustrating.
But here's the thing about living with chronic pain: you will do anything to improve your symptoms, especially when the healthcare system has dismissed you repeatedly. This is an aspect of the 'wellness industry' that we don't talk about enough. The reasons why people turn to unproven treatments are many and varied, but at the core is usually a desire to feel better. Whatever 'better' means for the individual person involved.
How we prevent people being negatively affected — emotionally, financially or physically — by alternative therapies and pseudoscience is something I do not have an answer for, but I no longer think it is as simple as pointing out the pseudoscience to people.
I may not have made the same choices as Buckley, but I completely understand why she made them.
Heal Me is Julia Buckley's personal story, but her experience of navigating a health care system — the NHS in her case — for issues that are chronic will resonate with many people.
Heal Me: In Search of a Cure by Julia Buckley is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson and is available in hardback, paperback, ebook, and audiobook format.