Dancing with Monsters: Chronic Illness as Creative Transformation

This is a book about monsters. Not the cute, laughably incompetent ones you see in animated movies, but the ones you meet in your own life: ugly thoughts, unexpected losses, inexcusable evils.At age twenty, Kate Wolfe-Jenson had already discovered her monster-mind. She was an expert at negative thinking and expecting disaster. Then she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Together, the monsters whipped her into a wild dance, MS tapping out fear and sadness and her monster-mind twirling it into depression, rage and grief. It seemed like the monsters would win. A decade after being diagnosed, she discovered that what she knew about the creative process could help her deal with the frustrations of living with chronic illness (and life in general). Through that understanding, she entered into a dance with illness and healing, rather than running from them.Through memoir, essay and fanciful stories, this book explores the landscape of chronic illness, describes its contours and invites you onto the dance floor.