Chronically Ill Find Encouragement During Invisible Illness Week´s Workshops

One of the most challenging parts of living with a chronic illness is that it´s just so daily! This week is National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week, September 8-14, and they are offering twenty free online seminars hosted by some of the leading illness experts that can help you cope better with life issues.

People of all faiths are welcome to attend; a few of the "coping" workshops, however, have Christian authors who turn to the Bible as their foundation for truly understanding how to best cope with daily pain and illness. These include:

Stress-Busters that Work: Faithful and Fun Ways to Lessen Stress and Encourage Hope and Health will be presented by Maureen Pratt, well-known author of Peace in the Storm: Meditations of Chronic Pain and Illness. For more than ten years, Maureen has written and spoken about health, prayer, faith, and living with chronic illness and pain. She has also lived most of her life "in the trenches" as a patient who has a number of illnesses. (Monday, Monday, Sept 8, 3 p.m. pacific)

Dealing with Hurt Feelings and Mixed Up Emotions will be discussed with Leslie Vernick, a counselor who focuses on improving one´s relationships with others, God and self, teaching people how to address conflict, speak the truth in love, handle adversity in a God-centered way and negotiate through difficult and destructive relationships with biblical principles. Her most recent book is The Emotionally Destructive Relationship. (Monday, Sept 8, 12 p.m., pacific)

Medications, Illness, Fertility and the Desire for Motherhood will be presented by Jennifer Saake, author of Hannah´s Hope. Jennifer has lived 18 years of illness, with infertility for 10 of those years. Balancing both conditions includes: medication side effects (illness meds on fertility and fertility meds on illness), questioning sanity of wanting desperately to have children yet fearing how she would care for them when she can hardly care for herself, facing the frustration of attempting adoption when her health makes her less "marketable." (Tuesday, Sept 9, 12 p.m. pacific)

All seminars will be featured live via Blog Talk Radio for forty-five minutes, with questions from callers taken the last fifteen minutes. See dates and times for additional seminars at www.invisibleillness.com, which will be recorded and archived.

Many guests have donated free items or services, which will be given away in prize drawings. Bloggers are invited to participate by blogging on invisible illness topics September 8-12, 2008 and to download the "I´m blogging for Invisible Illness Awareness" badge from www.invisbleillnessblog.com .

National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week was launched in 2002 by Lisa Copen, author of "Beyond Casseroles: 505 Ways to Encourage a Chronically Ill Friend." It is held annually in September and is sponsored by Rest Ministries, Inc., the largest Christian organization that serve the chronically ill.