Are you ready to eat?

In response to a recent post on my blog www.defeating-illness.blogspot.com I shared the following: What do you think?

Happy Thanksgiving Vito,

Thank you for taking the time to post on my blog. I appreciate your comment. You said,

"consult your doctor or a mental health professional. If you are diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, effective treatment is available".

I agree with you on this, however I have found that along with prescription medication, which can be an important part of easing stress and anxiety, we need to step up and recognize the fact that we can and must play a large role in reducing anxiety and stress.

We can soothe ourselves in a number of ways. For example, a true interactive relationship with God, various relaxation techniques, holistic medication and counseling all play a combined role in the process of getting control of your life and reducing your levels of anxiety, fear and worry. Even when life is difficult and yes, sometimes miserable because of chronic illness we still receive blessings and good fortune on a daily basis.

Coach Marla, the host, of the blog talk radio show www.WinningLlifeThroughPain.com and myself, the show's co-host, were having this very discussion with callers on yesterday's show
(11/25 dealing with the pain and symptoms of Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy RSD, all shows are archived so please visit the aforementioned web site and take a listen). The point that I was trying to make, which was also discussed on the show yesterday is:

Every chronic illness, every disease or injury by its definition has numerous symptoms. When you don't have one of the symptoms of your MS, fibromyalgia, RSD, POTS, muscular dystrophy and the like, it's a true blessing. And, that's how we have to look and deal with things. If we don't everything is a negative and we have nothing but despair. Focus on your abilities not your inabilities, your gains not your losses, the things, support, family and friends that you do have in your life. Oh, what tremendous blessings.

I was blessed today by a woman I just happened to meet surfing the Web. This was my response to her...

Hello Chelle,

I don't know where to begin__ your site is magnificent, the blogs are so helpful and how you have promoted my book Life Interrupted, It's Not All About Me just takes my breath away.

Your site is so well done. I wish I had a fraction of the skill that you have demonstrated with the design and functionality that I have seen during my brief surfing experience this afternoon. My blogs are terrible. They are sad because they are all about getting people to buy my book... it's the same stuff, over and over over again. I feel I have let my readers down by dumping the same material on them in one form or another. The first post I read on your site was about how and what an author should post on their blog in order to avoid sounding like an amateur. wanted tremendously helpful bit of insight I had come across. Thank you!

.....and then I look at what you have put together to promote my book and I am blown away. I mean, I was actually close to tears. You don't even know me and you did all that work for me. Thank you so much. You have shown the light, you have truly been a reflection of Christ.. Thank you so very much.

See for yourself, what Chelle put together for me: http://weblog.xanga.com/cce613/681173471/book-promo-life-interrupted-its-not-all-about-me.html

Please keep in touch and God bless,
Chris

It has been a good but crazy day. Today was my book release and there's so much to do. I wish there was an easy way to tell everyone that my book is available at bookstores everywhere and online. I need to plaster my web site everywhere, lol..........

www.Lifeinterrupted-nolonger.com

New! Oct 14, 08 Release on Amazon.com Click Link Below:
http://www.amazon.com/Life-Interrupted-Its-Not-About/dp/1606045636/ref=sr_11_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1224006176&sr=11-1
Take care and God bless,
Chris

Posted by Bluebirdy at 5:53PM Sunday,September 21, 2008
For HUSBANDS With a Chronic Illness...
Sheila aka Bluebirdy wrote the following regarding my book:

I think this book has got to be the only book written by a husband with chronic illness. It's called "Life Interrupted-It's not all about me" by Chris Tatevosian.

In order to help couples deal with illness and have a good marriage, there is a great need not only for couples who will write more about how they get through life, but a need for men to open up about their circumstances as well. Marriages with one or both partners sick has an astonishing divorce rate of 85%. It doesn't have to be this way! If more people would write about how to help marriages survive under intense conditions, if we could get some acknowledgement and some instructions on how to deal with certain circumstances, we could improve those odds greatly!

Why don't men write about their illness? All the chronic illness books I have, were written by women except for one by Tim Hansel called "You've Got to Keep Dancin". I think when men get a life changing illness, they are so deeply hurt, and their sense of self is destroyed so much, that they don't even know what to say, and they think that talking won't solve anything, so they stay silent. They don't want to seem weak by admitting they have any flaw or weakness. Most men rarely want to admit that they are only human. Not only will they not admit it, but they usually refuse to read anything that might make their life better. Thank goodness, Chris Tatevosian has broken his own silence and can see his life clearly for what it is. This book is available through any online bookstore such as Amazon, Alibris, Chapters, Borders, and many others, and through the MS Society website. If you buy from the MS site, some of the money goes to help MS patients and research. I bought the e-book because in Canada, the shipping for a book is usually more than the cost of the book. This very intelligent and emotionally aware man can see the whole picture, and how his illness affects the whole family, not just himself. He is able to go outside of himself and try to meet the needs of others in his life; and by so doing, he gets that love, respect and friendship in return. He has an easy-going way of writing that makes you think you are sitting in his living room listening to his story. He is not ashamed to admit that he has made some mistakes, and not to proud to keep from learning from those mistakes. He admits he's not perfect, but at least this book is some kind of voice to the men who are ill. That seems to be such an isolated sector of society. Men who are ill seem to have no one to talk to, no one to understand how deeply this affects who they feel they were created to be. I am very thankful to Chris for exposing his very painful life. A famous writer, when asked how to become a great writer, stated "Just open a vein and write". That's about how hard it is to get to the deeper parts of our soul and share them with others., and to have a book of depth and perception.

This book is a wonderful tool for wives as well, to understand how a man's mind works, and what he is trying to sort out when he gets a permanent illness.

Chris has his own website with many categories in it to help you learn more about his book and story. He has given multiple radio interviews, and he can tell you where to read the archives of those interviews if you go to his site. He is VERY entertaining and upbeat. He is a great example to all of us who are trying to get through one hour at a time. I'm sure he'd also want me to give a lot of credit to his care-giving wife; who takes care of all of his physical and emotional needs with a loving heart. It's not easy to do that and earn a living as well. Please go to his website and get to know this ground-breaking man. http://www.lifeinterrupted-nolonger.com/ I hope because of Chris' example, more men will write about how to deal with life, how to make live livable and pleasant even with limitations and pain.

I'm a big fan, Chris!

HANG IN THERE!!!!
Posted by Bluebirdy at 5:53 PM

2 comments:
Hi Sheila!
Great review...I have to buy this book.
I visited Chris blog. His real story life is inspiration for many.
Thank you so much for this beautiful post
and for this recommendation.
Great job!

Take care and
God bless you!

Love & hugsss

krystyna said... Sun Sep 21, 07:38:00 PM MDT

Hi Shiela,
That's a wonderful review of a book on man's suffering from a painful and debilitating disease. I agree with you that most men who are suffering from some sickness or pain choose to remain silent and preserve whatever is left on their own macho image. Well, times are changing and men must also change too and share their life experiences with their diseases so that others can understand them and empathize. Thanks for the marvelous post. God bless you always my dear sister and friend.

        Inspiration, you ask?
            By Chris Tatevosian


Just the other day I received a comment on my blog  whereby a woman, Irene, stated that I was an inspiration to others on the site. I replied, thank you for the kind words, but I don't think of myself as an inspiration. The funny thing is, I was in the process of writing an article for the Rest Ministries Magazine entitled “Inspiration, you ask?"  In this article, I attempt to explain how God intervened and turned my book into a book that can help millions of people rather than one person, myself, which was my original intention. Since my book “Life Interrupted, It’s Not All About Me“ was published last August, it has become somewhat of a common occurrence where I find myself sitting before a group facilitating a discussion prior to a scheduled book signing and I find myself wondering, how am I going to use this experience to please God?  No matter what I have planned He shows up and unbeknownst to me, God has me address the point or topic He has planned to glorify himself. The venue for such an event in my recent experience has varied from a local public library, bookstore, coffee shop, church and MS support group meeting, but just like the Bible says, He is always with me.

For those of you who are not familiar with my book, it’s my real life story dealing with chronic illness or disability and the resulting stress put on your relationship as a result of life being interrupted by this unwelcome guest, which in my case happens to be multiple sclerosis. Recently I spoke before a group of approximately forty individuals attending a Friday morning prayer breakfast at the First Congregational Church of Hopkinton here in my home state of Massachusetts.

I had a plan for my discussion, but it went out the window with the first question. The first question posed by a gentleman showed the direction God would have me take this particular Friday morning. The question, “what was your inspiration for writing the book,” the gentleman asked? That happened to be the first time anyone had ever asked me that question. In some ways, I had been avoiding this question from the time I had begun writing the book back in 2003. This question reminded me of the ugliness and mean-spiritedness of my divorce.

You see during the process of my divorce the information that my ex-wife had provided her attorney, was embellished by her attorney for later use in court if that was necessary. Even though the divorce never came to that I was concerned that embellished, basically false information would be shared between my ex-wife and her friends and family. Therefore, the inspiration for writing my book at one time was to protect and defend my moral character. By doing this, in my mind I was clearing my name so to speak and that’s all I cared about. At some point God intervened and said, you know Chris instead of helping one person, yourself, you could use this book as a means, an opportunity to help millions of people dealing with the same stress, struggles and relationship difficulties you have undergone. By doing this you could help prevent others from making the same relationship destroying mistakes that you had made. That was the point, when I realized that rather than helping one person, I wanted to help, comfort and minister to the greatest number of individuals in need that I could reach. After all, helping people avoid making the same relationship destroying mistakes that I had made is the foundation for my having written this book.

In my book I state, “by writing this book if I can help just one person avoid making the same relationship destroying mistakes that I made, it will have been well worth literally making my life an open book,” and I believe that’s what God wanted me to do. “Life Interrupted, It’s Not All About Me,“ is not always pretty, but it’s real and it is available from www.Tatepublishing.com. I hope you will give it a read.

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us, “ (Romans 8:18).