Woman’s Journey Provides Helpful Guide to Healing from Chronic Pain

The Empowerment to Conquer Illnesses by Mireille Mandat

Wow! What an unbelievable story of pain, frustration and despair transforming into new life that author Mireille Mandat has to share in her powerful memoir/self-help book, The Empowerment to Conquer Illnesses. Anyone who has or knows someone who has one of those “invisible” illnesses — like fibromyalgia, neuropathy, inflammatory bowel disease, depression, etc. — needs to read this book.

I, myself, suffer from a few autoimmune diseases where you look “great” on the outside but feel terrible on the inside. It’s hard to get anyone (including the medical community) to take you seriously and to provide you with the empathy and respect you need to get you through.

The sufferer is left feeling crazy, discouraged and desperate. No one believes you are in pain. No one takes you seriously. “It’s all in your head.” The way Mireille was treated was inhumane and appalling. For 12 years she suffered with a little-understood, debilitating and often misdiagnosed disease.

A Lifetime of Chronic Pain and Frustration

Mireille’s story is heartbreaking. Her life spiraled out of control as she went from doctor to doctor looking for some relief from her pain. She was prescribed various medications, but nothing helped and the side effects were often worse. After performing tests to rule out some possibilities, one doctor tried to be encouraging by saying, “‘Mireille! I have good news for you! Your tests came back normal, and that’s a good sign.’ For me, it wasn’t good news. I was hoping at least to have an explanation. I was searching for that clarity again, an answer. A clear diagnosis that the doctor would tell me was treatable.”

Even once she got a diagnosis of fibromyalgia, the situation didn’t change. More years went by and her pain persisted as she suffered from insomnia, fatigue, headaches, tingling, and brain fog.

Mireille went through experiences no one should have to go through. Where was the respect and empathy from her doctors and medical staff? She was searching for answers and relief from debilitating symptoms that affected every part of her existence. She was robbed of joy, forced to quit her job — and her friends and family didn’t understand. She became isolated, lost her health benefits and financial stability, and had to drop out of nursing school.

When There’s Nowhere Left to Go But Up

Seven years into her battle with fibromyalgia, she began to struggle with severe depression and overeating, and eventually things got so bad that she had thoughts of hurting herself. She ended up in an abusive relationship and continued in a downward spiral. She hit rock bottom when she ended up in a psychiatric ward, where she was drugged, and left disoriented and disconnected to the point of not being able to recognize her own boyfriend.

So, what saved her? Reading and educating herself on natural cures. No one could do it for her, so she took it upon herself to find help on her own. As Mireille says, “Knowledge is power, and without it, we are lost.” You have to be your own health advocate! This is what eventually turned it all around for her and she eventually became pain-free and a new person.

Mireille acknowledges that she is not a doctor, but she has done her research and through trial and error has found what works for her. In the book, she discusses respecting your gut (and the gut microbiome), insulin resistance as the root cause of many illnesses, the power of intermittent fasting, the foods that make us sick and those that restore our health, what to remove from our diet, unhealthy habits to avoid, and the importance of cooking from scratch. Mireille wraps up the book with a summary of 14 health tips on “how to avoid sickness for good” and recommended reading.

Bringing About Positive Change for Others

She says she decided to write this book to share her journey with others. About 4 million people in the U.S. suffer from this condition every day. “My mission in writing this book is to help others out of the hole they may be in or to prevent them from falling in there as I did. I hope that sharing my experience will bring positive change and a better life to others who are suffering in similar ways from acute and chronic diseases.”

“It has been five years since my illnesses left my body — no more prescription drugs, no more over-the-counter drugs, and no more pain! I am happier than ever before — I am back at work, I sleep well, and I stay away from doctors except for annual check-ups. If I had known then what I know now, I would probably not have had to quit my job and stop my studies. But everything happens for a reason. Perhaps I developed these illnesses because I was meant to help educate others about healing their bodies by eating whole foods.” This is now Mireille’s new mission!