Rating: 
Summary: Losing My Mind: An Intimate Look at Life with Alzheimer's
Review: I just finished this book and it gave me a better understanding of what my Mother is going through. She won't talk about it but this book gave me the best insiders look at her life with Alzheimer's. I now understand her moods, her fears, her anger. I highly recommend this book to anyone who's family member has been diagnoised with Alzheimer's. Also, what was extremely great was all the medical terms and current discoveries in treatment. Your local M.D. often can't recommend or give you a contact to join a support group. The medical community by large needs to get with the program as well as the State and Federal government. More and more folks will be diagnoised with Alzheimer's because we are all living longer. They, the politicians need to deal with it like we the family members and care givers, and victums! Thank You.
Rating:
Summary: Losing My Mind: An Intimate Look at Life with Alzheimer's
Review: I just finished this book and it gave me a better understanding of what my Mother is going through. She won't talk about it but this book gave me the best insiders look at her life with Alzheimer's. I now understand her moods, her fears, her anger. I highly recommend this book to anyone who's family member has been diagnoised with Alzheimer's. Also, what was extremely great was all the medical terms and current discoveries in treatment. Your local M.D. often can't recommend or give you a contact to join a support group. The medical community by large needs to get with the program as well as the State and Federal government. More and more folks will be diagnoised with Alzheimer's because we are all living longer. They, the politicians need to deal with it like we the family members and care givers, and victums! Thank You.
Rating: 
Summary: Alzheimers + untreated depression: almost unbearably sad
Review: 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:
Summary: Damn!
Review: I'm losing my mind and it sucks!
Rating: 
Summary: Tender in its detail... hellish in its brutal reality
Review: Intimate this book is indeed, and heartbreaking in its Alzheimer's-inspired eclecticism. DeBaggio gathers snippets about the disease from medical journals and mixes them with his own perceptions from the inside of a brain gone bad. At times, I admit to feeling frustrated with his "wallowing" -- repeating over and over the gloomiest sorts of thoughts about his imminent death. Much more affecting, in my opinion, were his insights into the role of memory in forming our human minds, and how tenuous our life becomes when memory is no longer reliable. For anyone dealing with the early stages of this disease, this book is a treasure -- uplifting and thought-provoking. Limited by its very nature, it cannot show much of what lies beyond the short "early dementia" period DeBaggio is capable of cataloguing. But beyond that, as DeBaggio says, we must all embark on our own journey, our own struggle with words and our own grapplings with memory. Even for someone like myself who is, thank God, not coping with Alzheimer's, this is that rare book that offers readers a chance to hold the author's hand as he is unwillingly tugged along the first few steps of one of the most hellish of human journeys.
Rating:
Summary: Remarkably beautiful and touching!
Review: It is a provocative memoir of a man who courageously sharing with the world some of its last moment of having a memory or human's most important asset that defined us all in this world. This book provides a glimpse of the Alzheimer's dim world besides exposing human's natural reaction of disbelief, denial, anger, fear and misery when unexpectedly been granted to such fate. The author is very open in revealing his raw emotion and perception on what he's going through and what lies ahead of him and the impact of such ailment to his loved one. The narrative is beautifully written with piercing essence; the thought and feeling expressed is real and very affecting to any soul who realise that as aging is never an option there's always possibility that we or someone we loved would be destined to such ending fate. Tragic if it happened too early. It taught the importance to make the most of every passing moment in life and to fight till the end of what's left of sanity. This book is worth reading, and gives a clearer understanding about the illness. Even though the description of the author's suffering is heartbreaking but his fighting spirit should be commendable. The humanity that he believe and fight shines and touches me through the words written. I wish him all the best, and to his loved one may all the good memories stay alive even though he may reside in his own world one day. Well, nothing is more important than having a memory thus it should be cherished as far as we still live.
Rating:
Summary: A powerful book
Review: Many of us are willing to put up with a physically debilitating disease. It's not something we look forward to, but we like to think we'll take it in stride when it comes. After all, that's part of the price of getting old. But most of us quake with dread at the thought of losing our mental faculties. There's something about the thought of no longer being in control on the "inside" that is far more frightening than losing control on the "outside." In *Losing My Mind,* Thomas Debaggio has voiced those fears for us. One of this book's many merits is that he never tries to softpedal the horror of what's happening to him. In this regard, his memoir is very much reminiscent of "Tuesdays with Morrie.* He describes the personal feeling of disintegration and hopelessness, telling us, himself, and his wife that at times all he wants is to be hugged--the whimper of a lost and frightened child. He also describes the incredible burden that his illness places on his wife and son; they, after all, will have to deal with the condition long after Thomas is no longer present. But the book is also a testament to the human spirit and spirituality. The very fact that Debaggio can write such a moving tale while in the grips of a reason-destroying illness, and still find wonder and beauty and joy and humor in life is well worth pondering. His memoir will make readers appreciate life and loved ones.
Rating:
Summary: Charts the ups and downs of the Alzheimer's experience
Review: There have been many books on caring for Alzheimer's patients, but this autobiography comes from a man who discovers early on that he has Alzheimer's in its worst form. From his life prior to diagnosis and how he makes a new life after the prognosis, Losing My Mind charts the ups and downs of the Alzheimer's experience from a unique personal perspective.
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Summary: POIGNANT, TOUCHING AND EXTREMELY MOVING
Review: There is nothing so sad as to see a person who was once consumed with a passion for life, abundant with wisdom and intellect, active, alert and filled with a wealth of personal stories, overcome with Alzheimer's. It is a condition which has overwhelming effects not only for the individual afflicted with the disease, but for family and friends as well. Few individuals with Alzheimer's write a book about their progressive loss of memory and the associated conditions that go with Alzheimer's. Unless, you personally know someone with the disease, it is difficult to understand how it affects one's social life, their loss of verbal communication skills and their thought process. Debaggio gives reader an inside view and clearer understanding from a patient's perspective of what it is like to live with this devastating disease on a daily basis. The author's courage and strength in the face of adversity will touch readers to their very core. Debaggio deserves a standing ovation for having the heart and spirit to write such a poignant book on the subject, from a point of view only one afflicted with the disease could fully and realistically explain.
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