Strength and Surrender with Maevine

In this episode of How to Deal When the Shit Gets Real*, Maevine shares what it means to live with chronic illness while caring for a parent diagnosed with both dementia and ALS. This honest conversation explores caregiver burnout, anticipatory grief, physical exhaustion, and the emotional weight of loving someone who is slowly changing. If you are navigating long-term illness, supporting a parent through neurodegenerative disease, or trying to hold strength and surrender at the same time, this episode speaks directly to you.

Living with Chronic Illness When Your Body Feels Like the Enemy

Chronic illness changes the rhythm of everyday life. It affects energy, mental clarity, emotional capacity, and identity. In this episode, Maevine opens up about what it’s like to wake up every day not knowing how your body will respond.

Living with ongoing health challenges often means grieving the version of yourself you used to be. It requires adapting constantly — physically, emotionally, and socially. We talk about the invisible nature of chronic illness and the exhaustion that comes from having to explain what people cannot see.

Caring for a Parent with Dementia and ALS

When a parent is diagnosed with dementia or ALS, the grief begins long before goodbye.

This episode explores the emotional complexity of caregiving — loving someone deeply while watching parts of them fade. Dementia changes memory, personality, and connection. ALS affects mobility, speech, and independence. Together, they create a layered and overwhelming caregiving experience.

We discuss:

• Supporting a parent through neurodegenerative disease

• The emotional toll of watching cognitive and physical decline

• Navigating medical systems and uncertainty

• Balancing caregiving responsibilities with personal health

Understanding Anticipatory Grief

Anticipatory grief is the heartbreak that happens before loss.

It’s the quiet mourning of conversations that may never happen again. The ache of seeing change in real time. The emotional whiplash of hope and reality.

In this conversation, we unpack how anticipatory grief feels different from traditional grief. It’s ongoing. It’s complicated. It’s often invisible to others. And it can be just as heavy.

If you are experiencing the slow loss of someone you love, you are not alone in that emotional space.