This Sucks

Wise, visceral essays on navigating pain, sex, trauma, spirituality, addiction, recovery, and grief from queer, neurodivergent trauma-resolution guide Jessica Graham

In an unapologetic look at living well with trauma and chronic illness, writer and meditation teacher Jessica Graham offers smart, funny, raw, and mindful insights on untangling—and embracing—the messy realities of being a human alive on this planet today.

Graham gives us permission to accept care—and accept that it’s okay to want care. They weave together personal stories and practical wisdom, offering their take on managing symptoms, getting creative, setting boundaries, and healing from ableist tropes like “you don’t look sick” and “we’re all a little ADHD.”

Graham also shares vulnerable personal history: The adverse childhood experiences that wired their body and brain. The workaholism and addictions that kept their pain lying just below the surface. How illness and trauma intersect to obscure the knowledge that we’re each enough, wholly as we are.

This memoir explores the parts of chronic illness life that don’t get enough airtime: How can we center sex and pleasure when pain gets in the way? How can we live well while living through late-stage capitalist hell? How can we come into relationship with our pain without falling prey to self-blame, magical thinking, or toxic positivity?

Wise and embodied, fearless and necessary, Being (Sick) Enough is both a wild awakening and a love letter to your whole self: the pains and suffering, joys and brightness, and vital connections that hold each of us as we navigate what it means to be here, like this, right now.