May Recommended Reading: Loving Someone Who Has Dementia

I realize this is a very specific topic, and it won’t necessarily apply to everyone. However, as our population ages, more and more of us will find ourselves in the position of loving and maybe even becoming the caregiver for someone who has dementia. And that’s why Loving Someone Who Has Dementia by Pauline Boss, PhD, is May’s Recommended Reading.

When someone you love has dementia, it can be a particularly painful loss because there are so many smaller losses over time leading up to the person’s death. From the moment of diagnosis, it can feel like losing someone over and over and over again. The ambiguity of this particular loss is also very difficult. It’s not often we have to make sense of loving someone who is still alive, but somehow still no longer with us. Navigating a situation that is not at all black and white and so all-consuming can be extremely stressful.

It’s also difficult from the perspective of the caregiver. Caregiving is exhausting even under the best of circumstances. There are a lot of complicated and even conflicting emotions that come with caring for someone with dementia — a lot of stress and a lot of grief.

Loving Someone Who Has Dementia is a handbook to help you manage the stress, isolation, and grief that come with this diagnosis. It helps make sense of the feelings you might be feeling, as well as offering practical advice for how to manage in your day-to-day. This is not a long book, but it is packed with valuable information and coping strategies. This could be a wonderful gift for yourself or for someone you know who is deep in these waters.