“Still Alice” by Lisa Genova and “My Stroke of Insight” by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor gives readers first-hand experience of how the minds of Alzheimer's patients and people who have had a stroke work. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay "Still Alice" follows the protagonist, Dr. Alice Howland, as she progresses through a diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer's. The story begins by describing Alice's normal daily life with her husband, her relationship with her children and her role as a professor at Columbia. As the story unfolds, Alice slowly begins to forget little things here and there that she associates with post-menopausal symptoms. These moments of forgetfulness become more frequent and she seeks medical attention where she takes tests and discovers that she has the early-onset Alzheimer's gene. This represents a big reality check for Alice and her family because there are important decisions to make. The author does a great job of using words to show what Alzheimer's feels like from Alice's point of view. When Lisa Genova begins to replace the characters' first names with nouns like "woman" or "man", the reader can really begin to understand the severity of the disease. “My Stroke of Insight” does an incredible job of explaining the disease. progression of a stroke in common language without going too much into the scientific aspect. Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a neuroanatomist who suffered a stroke and explains the deterioration of her brain during the event. Since Taylor is a neuroanatomist, she has also included a more scientific section in this book for those readers who are interested in learning more about the topic. These two books have helped me sympathize more with patients I may have in the future by recognizing the themes of: loss of independence, frustration, and future planning. Since the two books listed above are quite different when it comes to the main points, there are some themes that repeat throughout both. One theme is the loss of independence. Both Alice and Jill are very used to functioning independently. Alice is a distinguished professor of linguistics and Jill is a successful neuroanatomist. Although Alice had a more progressive onset and Jill's stroke was very sudden, both outcomes resulted in a loss of independence, which neither woman was happy about. Alice and Jill have both become dependent on others to get through their days. Alice began to rely on her husband and daughters to remind her of the things she should do that day. Her husband had to start leaving notes around the house when she thought about going for a run without him: “John made her promise not to go for a run without him. He had sworn he wouldn't do it and it had crossed his heart. Of course, he could forget it." When Jill had a stroke, she knew she wouldn't be able to do the things she was able to do before. He compares himself to a child when he says, “With my mind stripped of its ability to recall the memories and details of my previous life, it was clear to me that I was now like a child born into the body of an adult woman. And oh yes, the brain wasn't working!”. He knew that from that moment and during his recovery his independence would be limited, like a child. These two characters find that they would not be able to complete tasks that they would normally be able to do. Personally, I know that if I were in their shoes, I would also have a lot of difficultylose my ability to be independent. I think Jill may have had an easier time accepting this just because she's a neuroanatomist, so she knows that the loss of independence may only be temporary. Another theme that connects both books is the sense of frustration. Jill and Alice both became very frustrated and annoyed with themselves in some parts of the book because they couldn't believe what was happening to them. With the loss of independence comes the frustration of not being able to do the things both of these women were used to doing. Alice demonstrated frustration when her husband wasn't always 100% there for her and she really needed him to be. “She guessed he wasn't very understanding. She has been very angry lately. He couldn't say whether this was a symptom of the disease's progress or a justified response. He didn't want a treadmill. He wanted it. Maybe she shouldn't be so stubborn. Maybe she was killing herself too. “Alice was frustrated because her husband told her to wait for him to go for a run, but when her husband wasn't available to go for a run, that's when the anger showed up. In "My Stroke of Insight", Jill becomes very frustrated with the concept of saving energy. He has to choose what to do during the day, otherwise he gets exhausted. “I had to choose between physical and cognitive effort because both exhausted me… On a cognitive level I struggled to understand my existence. I still couldn't think in terms of the past or future, so I burned a lot of mental energy trying to piece together my present moment. ” It takes a lot of energy to recover from a stroke, as Dr. Bolte explains in this novel. Having to choose certain things to spend energy on was frustrating for her because she was used to being able to get a lot done in a day. I can definitely understand how both of these women would be frustrated with their situation because it's not something they're used to. They are not used to this "new world" in which they find themselves trapped. It's all new and scary. The final theme that I found present in both books is the idea of ​​futuristic thinking and future planning. Once Alice becomes more aware of her condition, she makes a plan for herself. As sad as it is, Alice felt the need to do this for her future self. “She needed a plan that would commit her to a suicide in the future which she has arranged for now. He needed to create a simple test that he could self-administer every day. " She creates a list of 5 questions for her to answer, and if she has trouble with these, she will open a "Butterfly" file on her computer and follow a series of instructions. Each day the questions were answered. Towards the end of the story, Alice she finds she can't answer the questions she wrote for herself and so she takes matters into her own hands. Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor planned for herself during recovery , he knew the long road ahead of him. Jill knew she was a burden at the time, but she faced each day to achieve the ultimate goal of functioning fully independently. She realized she would need help living on her own for the time being, so she asked her mother to move in she “However, he felt he could help this little girl recover from neurological trauma. GG turned all those years of frustration at not being able to cure my brother's schizophrenia into a plan to help me recover my mind. ” GG, Jill's mother, was willing to go through this long-term process with her and accepted this challenge. Although it is difficult for her to think about, planning for future recovery has been key in regaining function and helping her.