Before I Lose My Own Mind: Navigating Life as a Dementia Caregiver

by Beverly E Thorn

Overview

"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." -Katy Butler, bestselling author of Knocking on Heaven's Door and The Art of Dying Well

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 road map 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781964721804
Publisher:	GFB
Publication date:	05/20/2025
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.79(d)

About the Author

Beverly E. Thorn, PhD, is dual trained in the neurosciences and clinical psychology. She is the author of hundreds of articles, two books, and four workbooks on coping with chronic illness. She spent decades as a faculty member at Ohio State University and the University of Alabama, where she went on to serve as director of the clinical psychology PhD program and department chair in psychology. Currently professor emerita, she continues to publish, speak, and conduct workshops nationally and internationally on managing chronic illness. In addition to being a certified end-of-life doula, she has won multiple professional awards and is a longtime member of the American Psychological Association, board certified in health psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology, and a fellow in the Societies of Behavioral Medicine, Clinical Psychology, and Health Psychology.