Unwillable

Jackie Stebbins’ Unwillable is an inspiring story of a brilliant woman’s battle with autoimmune encephalitis and the circle of support—from loving family members to dedicated physicians—who helped guide her through a hard-won recovery. Her story is as moving as it is important and is destined to help so many others facing this condition.

—Susannah Cahalan, author of NYT #1 bestseller Brain on Fire

Through her incredible writing, Jackie genuinely and selflessly shares the raw details of her journey with autoimmune encephalitis. Unwillable will help those suffering through loneliness and give them hope. While we’re making strides to identify and treat AE, it’s not happening fast enough. The best we have right now is hope. And Jackie’s story brings hope.

—William Gavigan, father of an AE survivor and Chairman of the Autoimmune Encephalitis Alliance

Unwillable is a brave and powerful book. Jackie Stebbins, a brilliant, driven young lawyer, wife, and mother, shares the devastating story of her illness with autoimmune encephalitis, a rare autoimmune brain disease, and her amazing recovery. Reading about Jackie’s Mayo trip brought back to me the feelings of relief, hope, and grief that we felt when we went to Mayo and found a doctor who said, ‘I know what is wrong; we can treat the illness, and it will take a very, very long time to recover.’

—Helen Egger MD, co-founder of the Autoimmune Encephalitis Alliance

In Unwillable, Jackie Stebbins takes you through her harrowing battle with autoimmune encephalitis. Piecing together her own story from memory, medical records, interviews, and the handwritten journals she kept during her illness, Stebbins shines a light on a little-known and even less understood medical condition. Stebbins engages readers through the unflinching honesty, attention to detail and palpable willpower that she displays both in facing her illness and in her storytelling.

—Maria Burns Ortiz, co-author NYT bestseller My Fight/Your Fight

Heart-wrenching and hopeful. Jackie is a phenomenal storyteller; being fully transparent about her memory’s limitations during those hardest months but still conveying the fear, grief, and thankfully eventual hope that she felt is her art. This book is an emotional rollercoaster but is so easy to sit down and read in its entirety as you cheer her on after the fact.

—Sarah Bickerdyke, verified review on Amazon