In this episode of Becoming Real with Dr. Lori, Dr. Lori talks with Dr. Melodie Yates about the emotional reality of Alzheimer’s caregiving and the slow grief of dementia.

After spending 16 years caring for her husband through Alzheimer’s disease, Melodie brings an honest, deeply human voice to a journey that is often loving, lonely, exhausting, and sacred all at once.

Together, Dr. Lori and Melodie talk about ambiguous loss, the grief of losing someone while they are still physically here, the instinct to protect a loved one’s dignity, the loneliness caregivers often carry, and why no one should walk this path alone.

They also discuss caregiver burnout, family conversations, support groups, personality changes, and the painful recalibrating caregivers do again and again as dementia progresses.

This episode is for Alzheimer’s caregivers, dementia caregivers, family members, and anyone who needs to hear that caregiving is both an honor and a heartbreak — and that support is not optional. It is how we survive the journey.

Guest: Dr. Melodie Yates, author of Love Is an Action Verb: A Caregiver’s Journey

What if the people holding your life together don't even know they're doing it?

In this episode of Becoming Real with Dr. Lori, psychologist Dr. Lori Stevic-Rust explores the quiet, often invisible support system that carries us through our hardest moments — and why naming it is one of the most powerful things you can do for your own healing and growth.

These aren't your official caregivers. They're the friend who called on the day you couldn't explain.

The person who showed up without being asked. The one who witnessed your fear, your exhaustion, your hope — and stayed anyway.

Drawing on decades of clinical experience, her own family's cancer journey, and the research on post-traumatic growth and gratitude, Dr. Lori unpacks why emotional support — real, present, unglamorous support — is often the difference between wounds that harden and wounds that heal.

You'll walk away thinking about who has quietly saved you. And why telling them matters more than you know.

In this episode:

• Why being truly seen by others is central to healing and resilience
• The science of gratitude and post-traumatic growth
• What it means to be both caregiver and someone who desperately needs care
• Why your support system may be your greatest untapped source of strength

If this episode moved you, share it with someone who has quietly shown up for you. They deserve to know it.

How can they possibly think like that? If you've asked that question lately — about a family member, a friend, someone you used to feel close to — this episode is for you.

The truth is, we don't come to our beliefs the way we like to think we do. We don't gather the facts, weigh the evidence, and arrive at a thoughtful conclusion.

Most of the time, we feel our way into a belief first, and then we explain it to ourselves. And once we understand that, a lot of what feels so confusing right now — about ourselves and about each other — starts to make more sense.

This episode is about how propaganda works, what cognitive dissonance actually feels like from the inside, and why fear makes us reach for certainty before we reach for truth. But more than that, it's about the question underneath all of it: is what you believe actually yours?

In this episode:

• Why our brain feels before it thinks — and what that costs us
• How propaganda works without us realizing it's happening
• What cognitive dissonance feels like from the inside
• How to slow down enough to let your thinking brain catch up

Full show notes and links here:

https://drloristevic.com/propaganda