Speaking Our Minds: Personal Reflections from Individuals with Alzheimer's [Paperback]

Lisa Snyder LCSW (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 21, 2000

Four million people have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in this country, yet most live in silent shadows, their stories untold.

In Speaking Our Minds, seven diagnosed individuals of various ages and backgrounds express their thoughts and feelings about what it is like to have Alzheimer's disease, to live with it day to day, and to cope with its impact on their lives. Although afflicted with the same disease, each person's experience is unique. Told with honesty and insight, their stories cover personal history, diagnosis, family and social interactions, philosophical and religious perspectives, and the many neurological and pychological dimensions of the disease that permeate their lives.

Transcribed from taped, in-home interviews, the seven narratives are interspersed with the author's own thoughts and observations about the different lives unfolding before her and of the disease whose common themes bind them all together. What emerges is a powerful and compassionate portrait of people forced to define themselves in new ways, not just by what has been lost, but also by what endures.

A unique and illuminating exploration of the subjective experience of Alzheimer's disease, Speaking Our Minds offers hope and understanding to anyone whose life has been irrevocably touched by it.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Speaking Our Minds shows us the pain, humanity and courage of individuals with Alzheimer's Disease. It is a much needed and much appreciated book."
--Peter V. Rabins, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

"Lisa Snyder performs an important service in this excellent introduction to the experience of persons with Alzheimer's Disease . . . Consistently thoughtful and illuminating."
--Stephen G. Post, Ph.D., author of The Moral Challenge of Alzheimer Disease and Professor of Biomedical Ethics, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University

"Inspiring reflections abound in the perspectives and narratives of these patients and the social worker/narrator. This book is for everyone living in a world with Alzheimer's disease."
--Lisa P. Gwyther, MSW, Director, Family Support Program, Duke University Center for Aging

"Lisa Snyder skillfully weaves a tapestry of what Alzheimer's disease is really about by reporting on conversations with diagnosed people. By reading these, and Snyder's commentary, fellow travelers, caregivers, and health care providers will find further insight into Alzheimer's disease."
--Michael Livni, Executive Committee of Alzheimer's Disease International

"This resource enhances understanding of where individuals with Alzheimer's disease are going or where they have been. Whatever stages of infirmity, these individuals and their caregivers will benefit from these personal insights into a unique journey."
--Joy Glenner, President/CEO, The George G. Glenner Alzheimer's Family Centers, Inc., San Diego, California

"This is the best book I've ever read on Alzheimer's disease."
--Robyn Yale, LCSW, Clinical Social Worker and Consultant to the Alzheimer's Association, author of Developing Support Groups for Individuals with Early-Stage Alzheimer's Disease

From the Back Cover

"Speaking Our Minds shows us the pain, humanity and courage of individuals with Alzheimer's Disease. It is a much needed and much appreciated book."
--Peter V. Rabins, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

"Lisa Snyder performs an important service in this excellent introduction to the experience of persons with Alzheimer's Disease . . . Consistently thoughtful and illuminating."
--Stephen G. Post, Ph.D., author of The Moral Challenge of Alzheimer Disease and Professor of Biomedical Ethics, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University

"Inspiring reflections abound in the perspectives and narratives of these patients and the social worker/narrator. This book is for everyone living in a world with Alzheimer's disease."
--Lisa P. Gwyther, MSW, Director, Family Support Program, Duke University Center for Aging

"Lisa Snyder skillfully weaves a tapestry of what Alzheimer's disease is really about by reporting on conversations with diagnosed people. By reading these, and Snyder's commentary, fellow travelers, caregivers, and health care providers will find further insight into Alzheimer's disease."
--Michael Livni, Executive Committee of Alzheimer's Disease International

"This resource enhances understanding of where individuals with Alzheimer's disease are going or where they have been. Whatever stages of infirmity, these individuals and their caregivers will benefit from these personal insights into a unique journey."
--Joy Glenner, President/CEO, The George G. Glenner Alzheimer's Family Centers, Inc., San Diego, California

"This is the best book I've ever read on Alzheimer's disease."
--Robyn Yale, LCSW, Clinical Social Worker and Consultant to the Alzheimer's Association, author of Developing Support Groups for Individuals with Early-Stage Alzheimer's Disease --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: W. H. Freeman (February 21, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0716740109
• ISBN-13: 978-0716740100
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #973,368 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lisa Snyder is a native Californian. Since 1987, she has been a clinical social worker and Director of the Quality of Life Programs at the University of California San Diego's Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer's Disease Research Center where she is internationally recognized for her work in issues of early-stage Alzheimer's. She is editor of the international quarterly, "Perspectives - A Newsletter for Individuals with Alzheimer's or a Related Disorder" which provides a forum for people with Alzheimer's around the world to share their experiences and messages with one another. She is also author of the books "Speaking Our Minds - What it's Like to Have Alzheimer's" (revised in 2009) and "Living Your Best with Early-Stage Alzheimer's - An Essential Guide" (2010). Lisa continues to learn daily from the stories and experiences of the families she works with at the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center and consults both nationally and internationally on early-stage Alzheimer's issues. She resides in San Diego with her husband Jeff Irwin, an artist and ceramics professor who cared of his own mother with Alzheimer's. Lisa and Jeff both maintain an avid love of travel, the outdoors, and the arts.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Anecdotes from the words of Diagnosed ALZ people, July 17, 2002

By 

M KIRK-DUGGAN "Reverse Mike" (El Cerrito Fellowship, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Speaking Our Minds: Personal Reflections from Individuals with Alzheimer's (Paperback)

Being recently dianosed with CRS, see my review of Shenk's "The Forgetting," I want to know from others who have been there, what is ahead of me. I am a member of two ALZ support groups, one mixed, and one for ALZers by themselves. Recently at a social party where I was experiencing data overload, I confided to a woman of my own age, that I was diagnosed with ALZ. She immediately said she was also, and we immediately began comparing symptoms, just as other ALZers do when their caregivers are not around!
This book fullfills my needs for the stories from those who are there. No story fits me exactly, yet parts of each show me that I am not unique, that I need not fit the popular mold, e.g. "Iris," of where and who I am. Just as the 42 stories at the rear of "Alcoholics Anonymous" give understanding and light to those afflicted with another incurable pathology, so do these bring hope and understanding to me: "I Am Not Alone!"
There is an abundance of tomes dealing with the diagnosis and care of ALZers. Those few books which let one ALZ speak to another ALZ are far between. ["Living in the Labyrinth" by McGowan is another in this small select company.]
If you, a friend, or a relative has ever been given a tentative or conclusive diagnosis of ALZ, run, don't walk, to get a copy of "Speaking Our Minds" to them. If like me, their reading capabilities have substantially deteriiorated, please, please read it to them!

"Reverse Mike"

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic Among Books About Alzheimer's Disease, May 29, 2000

By 

Peter C. Winkler (Schroon Lake, New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Speaking Our Minds: Personal Reflections from Individuals with Alzheimer's (Paperback)

This book is suitable for anyone involved in the struggle with AD as well as the general public. I am the husband and caretaker of a wife who was diagnosed five years ago at the age of 53. I am also a social worker, and as I read this book I felt proud that a fellow social worker had written it. This book is full of up to date information concerning AD and it also provides an insightful look at seven individuals who are coping with AD. Lisa Synder has actually worked with people with AD for over a decade and she combines thoughts of persons suffering from AD with her own observations. In most of the vignettes, she writes about an initial interview and then she returns several years later to continue the dialogue and to bring us up to date in the situation. Ms. Synder demonstrates both compassion and admiration toward those she writes about. In the course of this book she dispells many of the misconceptions held by the public concerning AD. I don't think that anyone who reads this book will be disappointed.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everyone with dementia is first/foremost a unique individual, January 9, 2000

By 

Kathy Laurenhue (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Speaking Our Minds: Personal Reflections from Individuals with Alzheimer's (Hardcover)

As a trainer and consultant in the field of Alzheimer's disease, I constantly suggest that conference organizers enlist a panel of people with dementia to tell their stories directly to the audience. I also suggest that caregivers regularly ask people with dementia how they feel about events and situations -- What causes distress and what brings comfort? Now there is Lisa Snyder's book which does just that. Here are the real stories of seven individuals -- each experiencing dementia, but each a unique individual. Lisa is compassionate and understanding in helping them to tell their stories, but she celebrates their humanity; she does not pity them. Her interspersed comments are helpful and revealing, adding to our under-standing of the disease. When I cannot bring a person with Alzheimer's disease to my class, I bring this book and quote from these delightful, very human life stories. This book is definitely on my "must have" list.