Losing My Mind : An Intimate Look at Life with Alzheimer’s
- ISBN13: 9780743205665
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
“We are foolish, those of us who think we can escape the traps of aging,” writes Tom DeBaggio. “I was one of them, dreaming of a perfect and healthy old age….Now, at fifty-eight, I realize the foolishness of my dreams as I watch my brain self-destruct from Alzheimer’s.” Losing My Mind is DeBaggio’s extraordinary account of his early onset Alzheimer’s, a disease that “silently hollows the brain” and slowly “gobbles memory and destroys life.” But with DeBaggio’s curse came an unexpected blessing: the ability to chart the mechanics and musings of his failing mind.
Whether describing the happy days of his youth or lamenting over the burden his disease has placed upon his loved ones, DeBaggio manages to inspire the reader with his ability to function, to think, and ultimately to survive. By turns an autobiography, a medical history, and a book of meditations, Losing My Mind is a testament to the splendor of memory and a triumphant celebration of the human spirit.Amazon.com Review
This first-person account of Alzheimer’s ties several powerful stories together. Losing My Mind blends personal history with the fear and pain of developing the disease at the age of 57; it is both a sadly fascinating account of Alzheimer’s progression and an attempt for the writer to remember his past before it is gone for good.
While his history is recounted in chronological order, these memories–of his childhood; marriage to his wife, Joyce; their years in writing and politics; his passion for herbs and the growing of a successful business–are interspersed with unrelated musings on everything from his cat’s sudden deafness to losing his wallet. Clips from articles on Alzheimer’s research are sprinkled around, and statistics like the $174,000 that a patient spends on the disease over a lifetime are sobering. Throughout the book, he clearly speaks of his diagnosis as a “sentence”; the lack of a cure is dwelt on in many sections, and a story about an accidental overdose of his prescriptions is particularly grim.
This is not a book that supplies any “power of positive thinking” messages, but instead shows the daily struggle of a man coming to terms with a terrible disease. Poignant and thoughtful, DeBaggio’s life will hold meaning for anyone who has been touched by Alzheimer’s. –Jill Lightner
For more information: Losing My Mind : An Intimate Look at Life with Alzheimer’s
Losing My Mind : An Intimate Look at Life with Alzheimer’s
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- A Caregiver’s Guide to Alzheimer’s Disease: 300 Tips for Making Life Easier
- Finding Life in the Land of Alzheimer’s: One Daughter’s Hopeful Story
- Alzheimers Info To Make Your Life Easier
- Finding Life in the Land of Alzheimer’s
I agree with a couple of the other reviewers in that it is hard to condemn this book since the author has an incurable disease. However, I find his endless harping on his mental condition and just how black everything is to take away from the other excellent material in the book – quotes from various other sources about the disease and its ramifications.
He implies that this is the worst disease anyone could ever get. I think of Parkinson’s (and Michael J. Fox), being paralyzed (and Christopher Reeve), muscular dystrophy and MS – and how all of those worsen over time. I also think about acceptance and taking action as the two people mentioned above have done. The action I see this author taking is to constantly dwell on his own decline. This is not a book I can recommend to others with the same affliction unless you can use it as a springboard to act in a different manner.
Rating: 2 / 5
I do not wish to minimize the true suffering of this author who offers a firsthand account of living with Alzheimer’s disease. However, I dare say that he does not represent the views of most people with Alzheimer’s disease. Throughout the book, he paints the darkest possible picture of the disease and offers virtually no hope to people with the disease or those families and friends who provide care. Is there not more to life than memory and thinking? A few others who have written firsthand accounts of Alzheimer’s and many others who have spoken about living with it have discovered YES! Although the author mentions his social circle including his wife and son, it’s almost in passing. He characterizes his experience as a terrible and lonely hell. Must it be this private and sad agony at every moment of every day as he suggests?? It would be interesting to hear the views of his family and friends as they struggle to come to terms with brain impairments and his dismal view of the world. Unfortunately, the author offers little insight into his social resources and it seems clear that his internal resources are nearly depeleted. If you risk reading this book, take a Prozac tablet first. I wish the author would do the same to help him live his life to the fullest. I see nothing positive in this depressing story.
Rating: 1 / 5
I’m in the minority…I was disappointed in this book. It feels almost cruel to write a negative review because the author is admirably open and sincere, and his suffering is profound. But he seems to suffer from untreated depression as well as from Alzheimers. His unremitting anger and despair make his experiences (and ours as readers) even sadder than they need to be. I kept wishing he would take the energy he was using to write the book and put it into being more open with his family, or finding a therapist or a hospice-type program that would provide him and his family with ongoing support. Altogether a sad and moving book, but also a frustrating one.
Rating: 2 / 5
While this book was informative and gave important and current facts about Alzheimer’s research, I found myself thinking there was no “wow” factor in this book. The author, Thomas DiBaggio, talks about an uneventful past and repeats over and over that he is having difficulty writing the novel, but there was only one point in the book where I was actually captivated by his own thoughts. The most enjoyable part was reading about the current research. The book may have been more interesting if it had been attempted in the later stages of Alzheimer’s because, at this stage in his disease, this book made DiBaggio seem like a depressed man, with a mild memory impairment. I do commend him though for attempting to write this novel during this difficult time in his life, I just felt that his writing was not entirely captivating.
Rating: 3 / 5
This book is a look at life from the viewpoint of an individual diagnosed with early onset alzheimer’s and how he viewed his progression toward the final stages of the disease. It is an extremely accurate presentation of how alzheimer’s slowly robs an individual of their ability to think and reason and how that impacts on the immediate family and caregivers. This review is based on my observations of my mother-in-laws progress through the disease and her passing in 1994. The final two years of her life was spent in a alzheimer’s ward where she no longer recognized her own family. My wife was diagnosed with early onset alzheimers in 2002, but with proper medical follow-up and new medications the alzheimers progress was significantly slowed. “Losing My Mind” was a great help in knowing what to expect and how to react.
Rating: 4 / 5
My observations are of the views that are critical of the book in a literary way. I wish I had had this book 5 years ago. It would have given me a different view of my husband’s battle with this dread disease. Was this man supposed to take the attitude that, Well, it could be worse, I could have one of those other diseases. Well, he didn’t have the others. He had Alzheimer’s and that’s what he was dealing with. I lived through it with my husband for 8 years and probably would not have done anything differently but I would have understood some aspects better and known that he was possibly more aware than I thought he was. I think it is an immensely valuable book for caregivers.