Emily Parker spoke with author Amy Samuel about her new book 'Coping Without A Cure', and how she has learned to live with chronic pain and an incurable illness.

Emily: How have you dealt with disappointment?

Amy: I've been for prayer for healing countless times and I've kind of prepared myself not to be disappointed. I want to have the faith to expect and believe that God can heal me in that moment, but know that I might walk away unchanged and I don't know why.

Emily: How have you coped with the disappointment?

Amy: I've been through times where I've been confused and angry as to why some people were healed and I wasn't. I've got frustrated because I want so much for God to remove the limitations on my life, because there's so much I desire to do and achieve. But at the end of the day I trust God because His ways are higher than mine. I don't know that He has a reason for the pain, but I believe He will certainly do good things through it, or touch other people through it. And when I'm in heaven I know I can dance and create and rejoice and there'll be no more pain in my body, or anyone else's body in heaven. There'll be no more sickness. And that's how I deal with it. The point is I look forward to that hope of eternal life.

Emily: I can imagine at times, people can be really encouraging, or are trying to be encouraging, but sometimes might not necessarily say the right things. What are some of the wrong things to say, that you would advise people not to say to someone suffering from a condition like yours, or something else?

Amy: When offering to pray for someone, saying something like, "God can heal you right now; let me lay hands on you and you'll be healed." That seems like a big statement of faith, but actually that's happened so many times to me and I've not been healed, so there's been that disappointment. So pray, knowing that God is in control and you're just praying, letting God do what He wants and not saying what you think He's going to do.

Another thing is when people try to give you practical advice for back pain like, swimming is the best exercise, or you really should try doing more yoga, or take some Ibuprofen. They really aren't helpful things because obviously I've spent years doing those things. It's better for people to just have empathy and say wow, that really sucks, I'm sorry you're in pain. What can I do to help?

There are practical things people can do to help. They can help you carry something heavy, or help you clean your house. Offer practical help rather than trying to think you can fix the problem.

Emily: Why did you choose to write the book?

Amy: It seemed apparent to me that many other people suffer with chronic conditions that are unexplainable.

I've spent 17 years trying to find cures and relief and remedies that will help me cope and help relieve the pain, so I wanted to share some of that information. I've done quite a bit of research. I'm fascinated by health and I like studying, so I wanted to share that information and what had been helpful; what I'd tried and what had worked and what hadn't.

I've also been through CBT, that's counselling - cognitive behavioural therapy, in a healing journey, so I wanted to share bits of that that were helpful for me. And I'm an artist; I love to create things and paint. I've found healing in creating things and doing things with my hands. I'm a big believer in music therapy and art therapy. So I wanted to write a whole chapter on how the creative arts can help you switch off from the pain and change your perspective and have a better quality of life.

All those factors I wanted to put into a book to share with others, because I think a lot of people with chronic illnesses can feel quite hopeless and some really are unmotivated to do something about it. They're unmotivated to do their exercises. But I'm a big believer in you have to do right, to feel right sometimes.

I also wanted to use scriptures and words of encouragement, and some of my drawings to try and encourage people and touch people who are suffering.

Emily: If someone wants to get hold of a copy of the book, how can they do so?

Amy: Coping Without A Cure is available on Amazon, that's the easiest way to get it in print. It's also available for Kindle on Amazon as well. Just type in Coping Without A Cure by Amy Samuel and choose your method of reading it.