Before I Lose My Own Mind
Navigating Life as a Dementia Caregiver
by Beverly E. Thorn, PhD
You must sign in to see if this title is available for request. Sign In or Register Now
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date May 20 2025 | Archive Date May 19 2025
Talking about this book? Use #BeforeILoseMyOwnMind #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!
Description
Both a practical guide and a deeply personal memoir from a psychologist, neuroscientist, and end-of-life doula, Before I Lose My Own Mind helps dementia caregivers find ways to support their loved ones—while centering their own well-being.
When Dr. Beverly E. Thorn became a caregiver for her husband, Walt, she joined a massive army. Worldwide, unpaid dementia caregiving requires the equivalent of forty million full-time workers, and that number will only grow. But navigating dementia caregiving can feel like trying to climb a mountain in the dark—and few resources exist to support caregivers in finding their way.
In Before I Lose My Own Mind, Thorn—a psychologist, neuroscientist, and end-of-life doula—provides an honest vision of caregiving that is tender, openhearted, and genuinely useful. Filled with resources and insights on financial planning, advance care directives, clinical trials, support groups, death with dignity, grief, recovery, and more, this book is a roadmap for all caregivers, whether they’re family or friends, spouses or children, professionals or novices.
For those coping with the grief, exhaustion, and loneliness of a challenge they never expected, help is out there. Surviving dementia caregiving is a team effort. Consider this book a part of your support crew.
A Note From the Publisher
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/222407568-before-i-lose-my-own-mind
Book Goodreads page:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/222407568-before-i-lose-my-own-mind
Advance Praise
“This is a book I immediately wanted to give to a friend—and keep a copy for my bookshelf. Wise, clear, well-researched, and helpful. Many books focus exclusively on the needs of the person with dementia and assume the unpaid family caregiver is a saint without normal human needs. Not this one. The ‘Facts & Insights’ sections are fantastic and will save your life when you are too overwhelmed to absorb a full chapter.” —Katy Butler, bestselling author of Knocking on Heaven’s Door and The Art of Dying Well
“Family caregiving is, arguably, the most difficult unsought-after work anyone will ever do. And yet legions of people do it. In the style of Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal, Beverly Thorn’s Before I Lose My Own Mind is not only a raw and honest journal of a wife’s walk with her husband as he descends into dementia, but also contains valuable chapter-by-chapter facts, insights, and resources. It’s an insider’s story of progressive disease and a cautionary tale of the importance of documenting wishes for what’s coming—emotionally, medically, and legally—along with the pitfalls. In this moving, and often humorous, love story, we have a front row seat as the author overcomes her denial and learns to fight for her husband. And for herself.” —Gretchen Staebler, author of Mother Lode: Confessions of a Reluctant Caregiver
“Clinical psychologist Thorn carefully chronicles her husband’s prediagnosis period beginning in 2004 through his death in 2020 and beyond. Remarkably forthcoming about the ups and downs of her emotional journey, Thorn’s candor, dry humor, and no-nonsense prose makes the potentially challenging material very accessible. Each chapter concludes with helpful ‘Facts & Insights’ and ‘Resources,’ and the appendices add immeasurably to the book’s usefulness. Before I Lose My Own Mind serves as a document of Thorn’s journey as well as a valuable road map for others who are in a similar caregiver role, one that Thorn is still struggling to find peace with. Personal and practical, it is a valuable addition to the growing body of literature on an increasingly necessary topic.” —Jim Van Buskirk, regional coordinator and chief book and film reviewer for Final Exit Network and editor of There at the End: Voices from Final Exit Network
Marketing Plan
Publicity and media outreach
Author speaking tour
Social media
E-book promotions
Publicity and media outreach
Author speaking tour
Social media
E-book promotions
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781964721804 |
| PRICE | $18.95 (USD) |
| PAGES | 342 |
