Still Alice By Lisa Genova

His intellectual and emotional functions appeared to be related to the vast majority of other individuals who are inflicted with Alzheimer’s disease. Rose’s abilities, mental and intellectual, gradually declined and he became more confused. Remembering names of his friends were difficult, he was not able to remember most of the things surrounding him. Then his thoughts start to be too chaotic for him to handle, and small conversations start to become complicated. Performing his everyday tasks were challenging for him, as well as finding the correct words to identify simple objects like comb (Rose, 2000). His emotional capacity was affected from all of the changes, and his emotions targeted sadness, fear, and anger, while trying to be positive around his loved ones. He felt that his thoughts and feelings were circling around his mind destroying how thought of himself. Rose was irritated at the thought of not being able to do anything to help himself and to stop his torturous disease. He believed that Alzheimer’s was a disease of pain, in his words he said it was “a thief, a murder and destroyer of minds.” As his disease progressed, Rose felt more comfortable staying at home, where he was loved and understood by his wife Stella. Even though he might have looked healthy in the eyes of others, but eyes can be deceiving and that the general

The memoir went exactly how I thought it would be. Bette Ann Markowitz’s situation of taking care of a parent who has Alzheimer is very common; having an aging parent who can no longer fend for themselves. Markowitz is not an only child so she had to constantly consult her sibling on “what is the best option” (Moskowitz41),

In the book Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen, Susanna Kaysen was only 18 years old when she agreed to enter a medium security psychiatric facility in Boston, McLean hospital in April 1967, after a failed suicide attempt. She insisted that her over dose on aspirin was not a suicide attempt, but after a 20 minute interview the doctor decided she needed to be admitted to a hospital. During her prolonged two-year stay at the hospital Kaysen describes the issues that most of the patients in her ward have to deal with and how they all differently deal with the amount of time they must stay in the hospital for. While in the hospital Kaysen experienced a case of depersonalization where she tried to pull the skin of her hands to see if there were bones underneath, after a failed escape attempt. Soon, after going to therapy and analysis she was labeled as having recovered from borderline personality disorder. After her release she realizes that McLean Hospital provided patients with more freedom than the outside world, by being free responsibility of parental pressure, free from school and job responsibilities, and being free from the “social norms” that society comes up with. Ultimately, being in captivity gave the patients more freedom then in society and created a safe environment in which patients wanted to stay in.

Sanity is subjective. Every individual is insane to another; however it is the people who possess the greatest self-restraint that prosper in acting “normal”. This is achieved by thrusting the title of insanity onto others who may be unlike oneself, although in reality, are simply non-conforming, as opposed to insane. In Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted, this fine line between sanity and insanity is explored to great lengths. Through the unveiling of Susanna’s past, the reasoning behind her commitment to McLean Hospital for the mentally ill, and varying definitions of the diagnosis that Susanna received, it is evident that social non-conformity is often confused with insanity.

Just Love me: My life turned upside down by Alzheimer’s (Lee, 2003), has allowed Lee (2003) to put on paper what an individual going though Alzheimer’s disease thinks and feels. This book has been written in order to better inform individuals that have Alzheimer’s, as well as the non-suffers who have been touched by Alzheimer’s in friends and family. It follows Lee (2003) though her struggles with early onset Alzheimer’s, describing her experiences before being diagnosed as well as how her disease progresses. It also examined the difficulties in diagnosing a disease that is not yet well understood. Lee (2003) talks about her everyday struggles as the disease worsens and she begins to lose her occupations and the person she use to be.

Still Alice (Genova, 2009) is a captivating debut novel about a 50-year-old woman’s sudden decline into early onset Alzheimer’s disease. The book is written by first time author Lisa Genova, who holds a PH.D in neuroscience from Harvard University. She’s also an online columnist for the national Alzheimer’s association. Her other books include Left Neglected and Love Anthony. She lives with her husband and two children in Cape Cod.

Imagine a wife and husband being married for 44 years and having one of them not remember who the other is, or their past life together. The film Away From Her (Egoyan, et al., 2006) shows viewers how the disease can greatly impact your life, and how quickly it can form. The film was based off of a short story “The Bear Came over the Mountain” by Alice Munro (Munro, 2013). In both works, the author and the director portray a significant struggle between a husband and wife dealing with Alzheimer’s.

This screenplay follows the protagonist Alice Howland, who is a professor of linguistics at Columbia University. Alice Howland is later diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer’s Disease, which turns her world completely upside down; especially given her career and ambitious nature. She becomes unable to perform normal everyday activities, and struggles with the loss of her independence. Alice’s husband, John, who is a physician, attempts to act as a guide for her through this time, but it ultimately puts a strain on their relationship. John’s job offer to move to Boston does not help matters either, and it quickly becomes the last straw for the two of them. He soon moves to New York to take the job after Alice’s memory starts to decay at a faster rate. John and Alice have 3 children, Lydia, Anna, and Tom as well as a son-in-law, Charlie. They are introduced at the beginning of the screenplay, as they all gather to celebrate Alice’s 50th birthday at a restaurant. This is also the time in which the audience notices her decline in normal conversation as she is unable to follow smoothly. Alice could be considered the catalytic hero of this screenplay, and the disease being the antagonist. Alice wants to hold on to as much of her memory that she can, and slow the regression by writing down everything. By Act 3, Alice loses her ability to do activities that she had been doing for many years; such as going out for her morning run without getting lost, remembering words, phrases, and

     It is inevitable that eventually each of us will grow old and begin to face more and more health problems as our age rises. Elderly people are challenged by many illnesses and diseases that unfortunately, are incurable. One disease that becomes more common as people age is Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s a common cause and a form of dementia and can severely damage a patient’s cognitive functions and can ultimately cause death. Living with Alzheimer’s disease can be saddening for both the sufferer and the family. Family and friends will find it very hard to cope when a loved one begins slipping away and losing memory of who they are.

The novel, Girl, Interrupted is a memoir of author Susana Kaysen’s life and her journey through early adulthood as she suffered with Borderline Personality Disorder. The novel captures her time at McLean Hospital, a psychiatric hospital located in Belmont, Massachusetts. Kaysen divides the novel into separate anecdotes of events and fellow patients she encountered during the two years she was admitted at Mclean.

In On The Run, Alice Goffman focuses on a particular group of young Black men living in a poor neighborhood, struggling to live a “good” and “fair” life. These boys from 6th street are segregated from resources that would be found in more economically advanced neighborhoods. A “resource” that they do run into more than often is over policing in their neighborhood. As they are disproportionately targeted for arrest to fill quotas, this constant behavior and events deemed as a norm (even little children play a game about cops catching and being overly aggressive to Black boys), hinders their process at advancing within American society. Systematic oppression against a minority group slows and puts racial tension progress at a standstill, as they are continued victims of larger forces. What truly works against them once locked up and released, is that they were not given a chance based on race, now it becomes based on race plus their criminal history. People in such situations are left with one option, in order for them to survive and provide for their families, they must do it through illegal activity. Locking people up and returning then into the same environment which had limited resources does nothing to solve larger powers at play. Laws and documents may exist that describe an “equal” and “fair” society, but without action, words seem to hold less value. The Declaration of Independence, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are both documents meant to symbolize

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a serious form of dementia that involves the destruction of brain cells, and ultimately leads to death (1). What makes AD such a frightening disease, for both the patient and their family members, is the loss of "self" associated with the dementia. Those afflicted with AD can't understand the changes going on within themselves. Family members are upset by the loss of the "person" they once knew. It is common for daughters (for example) to say that a mother in the later stages of AD is not their "mom" because the personality displayed by the patient is so different from the personality they associate with "mom".

Alzheimer’s disease slowly steals a person’s dignity and erases precious memories. The “Alzheimer’s Disease Guide”, found on WebMD explains that tasks become more difficult to do often leading to confusion and behavior changes. The article further explains the progression of the disease also brings hardship to family and friends (1). To best cope with Alzheimer’s we must better understand the disease.

“Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a slowly progressive disease of the brain that is characterized by impairment of memory and eventually by disturbances in reasoning, planning, language, and perception.” (Howard Crystal) In Health 1000 we were asked to read the book Still Alice. I have never dealt with or have done any study on Alzheimer’s disease before reading this book. After finishing this book it has really opened my eyes to how bad of a disease and how it cripples the mind. I never imagined the effect of this disease on a patient and the patient family. This book is about a upper middle aged lady named Alice who is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and how she and her family learn how to deal with disease. One of the things this book

As the film unfolded, Alice became open with her family regarding her recent diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, fears and struggles. John who was physician, Anna who was a lawyer, Tom who was a medical student and Lydia an aspiring