"A private or secret place to which few other people are admitted."

To most, an Inner Sanctum is compared to something physical like Area 51, a testing ground for weapons of destruction, a place we hear about and often question its existence. However, what if it were associated with an environment like your mind? A mental state that few can understand except those who house those emotions, choosing to keep these feelings to themselves.The two have similar convictions in creating defense mechanisms and influencing judgment on how we perceive our lives and the thoughts, ideas, and use for them having a major influence and impact on the outcome.

The fact that we are all human may be true, but we also need to account for the internal and external stressors in our daily lives that contribute to how we function. In your reading, you will see both played a role in my perception of my place in the world. When coping with a chronic condition, the emotional piece to the disease can often be overshadowed by the physical and un-intentionally ignored, where medical intervention may be an option to consider. With the many challenges, a chronic illness often challenges selfawareness and management of psychological and social pieces.

The chapters of this book are chronological and depict a sampling of episodes experienced in my life.

Each chapter has a brief snapshot reflecting on the positive and negative. The consecutive chapters will not pick up where the other left off purposely, leaving the reader wondering what happened next. How would you react if placed in a similar situation?

Would you make the necessary changes and move forward? Or let fate take control in dictating the outcome? The answer or choice may come easy, but would those decisions be as easy when influenced by a mental imbalance?

This tell-all memoir surpasses one dimension and reads as autobiographic, poetic, self-motivational, self-aware, comedic, dramatic, nonfiction, and more. Diabetes, Cancer, and MS, to name a few, are all debilitating diseases where the physical breakdown of the individual becomes apparent to our peers. Inner Sanctum reveals what can transpire in the emotional piece when surviving a severe medical condition and the impact placed on the judgment and thought process.

I am aware this book will be interpreted differently by many; some may be positive, others negative, and some may laugh, cry, or even mock, but ultimately, if my message gets out to the many who have experienced similar confrontations with mind over matter and chosen to create an inner sanctum, then my goal has been achieved and this book a success. Welcome to my world.