Are you a caregiver feeling alone in your daily challenges, or overwhelmed by the 24/7 experience of caring for another person? Check out these books — and if you know someone just starting out as a caregiver, share this post. Because knowledge is power: and when you’re caregiving, education and encouragement is empowering.
The 36 Hour Day by Nancy L. Mace and Peter V. Rabins
A resource, guide, and comfort for family members and caregivers of someone with Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia, The 36 Hour Day is widely described as “empowering,” “necessary,” and “indispensable.” This book is based on the belief that though the disease itself may be binding, the options for improving one’s life affected by dementia are countless. It’s the guiding light through what can prove to be a dark, difficult time, as it provides information on ways to make life simpler and safer for those affected, information on healthcare insurance laws, how to make decisions about residential care facilities, and much more.
The Caregiving Wife’s Handbook by Diana Denholm
The Caregiving Wife’s Handbook stays true to its name, being an emotional, financial, and physical guide for women who have taken on the position of caregiving for their husbands in a time nearing close to death. The author of this book, Diana B. Denholm, passes on the information she learned firsthand as she cared for her husband and his increasingly serious medical conditions for over a decade. In this book, Denholm offers some much needed, much deserved peace amidst the invaluable advice and guidance in the pages.
The Body Keeps the Score by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk
In The Body Keeps the Score, author and world-known expert on trauma, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk writes from his time over the past thirty years of working with survivors of physical and emotional trauma. This book offers insight about the ways trauma physically changes the brain and the body, therefore affecting one’s relationships with self and others. Dr. van der Kolk offers hope in the midst of a world where trauma is a part of life.
Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast
A fearless account of author and cartoonist Roz Chast’s life, the book Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? gives readers permission to simply feel human feelings without guilt. Chast writes and illustrates her experiences related to caring for her parents, and the guilt and struggles that accompanied it. She pens thoughts others would never say out loud, but does so in a way that turns best-kept secrets into shared experiences in the most difficult moments of life.
Lessons in limitless love: my grandparents’ story
Some really nice suggestions you got there, especially “Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?”, seems really interesting.
Thanks,Donald! Glad you found the post helpful.