“A powerful, moving account of what it’s like when you must battle to make the medical world believe that you are ill.” – The Independent.
“A bio-medical narrative for this disease is emerging but patients and doctors still find themselves in a past century of foreign world, where ignorance and superstition still rule over knowledge and skill. Everybody needs to read this book.”
– Dr Nina Muirhead, BA(oxon) BMBCh(oxon) MRCS DOHNS MEd PGDipDerm
“Poignant. Gripping. Provocative. A rare glimpse into what it means to have a life-altering illness that medicine does not yet understand, with insights into the silent epidemic of decreasing confidence in our doctors. A must-read for pre-med students, doctors, people with chronic illness and caregivers alike.”
– Dr Veronique Mead, MD MA
Publishing: October 2022
PLEASE order this book from your local bookshop, from the publisher,
or if unavoidable, you know where…:
All In Your Head: What Happens When Your Doctor Doesn’t Believe You?
Product Description
What happens when your doctor doesn’t believe you?
Imagine this: You’re sicker than you have ever been in your life. You try to wait it out, but it’s not improving. You try to work, but it’s obvious you can’t: you have aching joints; painful, stiff muscles; you can barely walk. You are exhausted in a way that you have ever known. So you go to your doctor. After some routine blood tests you return to get the results. They are all negative.
The doctor leans slightly across the desk towards you and says the words that will change your life. ‘What would you say,’ she says, ‘if I told you that this is all in your head?’
If you know anything about publishing, you might know the idea that if you can’t sell a book in 3 seconds, you can’t sell it. But what if some books need 33 seconds to sell? And happen to be about something that you might think has nothing to do with you, but which soon will. For this is the case with All In Your Head, the story of the explosion of chronic, disputed illness that is happening now. The story in this book will happen to someone you know, someone you love. It might even happen to you.
For the last four years, Marcus has been working on a book based on his own experience of falling ill, over eight years ago, with ME, also sometimes termed Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It explores what happens when your doctor tells you your illness is psychosomatic, despite all the evidence to the contrary, and what these four words – all in your head – do to you. An experience which will now occur to many more people, due to the C-19 virus, and the mergence of Long Covid.
ALL IN YOUR HEAD – THE PODCAST
Accompanying the book, a podcast mini-series explores some of the themes of the book first hand, with expert witnesses of all kinds, from sufferers to doctors to philosophers.
You can listen to the first episode here:
All enquiries: Phil Perry/Abi Sparrow @ SP Agency
© Marcus Sedgwick/All In Your Head 2022
