Seth Rogen and Wife Lauren Miller Recall ‘Brutal’ Time Navigating Her Mother’s Alzheimer’s in New Doc (Exclusive)

• Seth Rogen and wife Lauren Miller Rogen are releasing a new documentary, Taking Care, about her late mother’s experience with Alzheimer’s disease

• The filmmakers touch on their difficult journey as caretakers and founding their nonprofit Hilarity for Charity

• The couple hope their story will raise awareness for the disease and funds for those impacted 

As a comically gifted couple, Seth Rogen and wife Lauren Miller Rogen previously discussed how humor helped them “cope with things” while caring for Miller’s late mother Adele, who was diagnosed with genetic early-onset Alzheimer's disease at age 55.

However, in their new documentary, Taking Care, the filmmakers give a raw inside look into their experience as caretakers prior to Adele’s death in 2020.

Per an official synopsis, Taking Care is “a story about family, resilience, and the power of taking action in the face of adversity. With expert insights and touching personal moments, the film is a powerful reminder of the difference we can all make in the effort to end Alzheimer’s.”

As executive producers of the documentary, the couple opened up about their emotional journey ahead of its Jan. 22 release.

“I've seen firsthand how people sharing their stories is very therapeutic and allows other people to open up themselves,” Rogen, 42, tells PEOPLE. “And I think Lauren's family sharing their story will just make a lot of people not feel so alone if they are dealing with the disease. It'll offer comfort and if you know nothing about the disease, it will hopefully show you what it's like.”

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Related: Seth Rogen Can't Believe How Committed He Is to Raising Funds for Alzheimer's: 'Even I'm Shocked That This Has Happened'

Miller, 43, says Alzheimer’s can be difficult to understand if the disease hasn’t touched you personally. Despite having witnessed both her grandparents’ battles with Alzheimer’s, navigating her mother’s diagnosis was still tough.

“When she started to show signs early on, I immediately panicked because I feared I did know what was in store… and I was right,” she tells PEOPLE. “It was brutal, if I’m being completely honest.”

“I really struggled for quite a while,” she adds. “I felt angry and had a short temper, but eventually started going to therapy and trying to do things to make it livable. That was the option that I had. It was either live in the darkness or do something about it.”

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Rogen admits that it was “a revelatory experience” seeing how taxing the disease was on Adele, as well as Miller and her family. “It was very eyeopening and very devastating,” he adds.

The actor says he was as supportive as he could be, which Miller praised, but he ultimately recognized that he didn’t have the tools she needed to “really navigate a heavy amount of grief.”

“It's hard in some ways — not being able to help — but I think it's very relieving in other ways,” he explains. “If you don't have an ego about it, I think it's very healthy to acknowledge that you don't necessarily have the skillset to fix everything. Just like if you break your arm, it's not hard for me to understand that I don't know how to fix that. So I think I feel very similarly.”

So, Rogen recommended that his wife start therapy. Miller didn’t grow up in a family that ever considered therapy, but says it was extremely helpful over the years after giving it a chance.

Related: Seth Rogen and Wife Lauren Miller Honored for Alzheimer's Awareness Work: 'We Don't Win Much,' He Jokes

During that journey, the couple also founded Hilarity for Charity in 2012 for Alzheimer's awareness. Through the nonprofit they've frequently held events with comedians and musicians to raise money to fight the disease. HFC’s work is also featured in Taking Care. Miller says the community they’ve built is inspiring and it’s been so beneficial to “sit across from someone who was in the same boat.”

“I was able to find so much hope,” she tells PEOPLE. “We connect with more and more people year after year, which means we're raising more money to help people. And when you see the work that we're doing, tangibly helping them, it's such great inspiration to keep going.”

“Yeah, it was hard,” Miller says of sharing her family’s story, “but I think the things we learned are what drove us to create the programs we have today.”

“I hope that people walk away with an understanding of what the disease is — it's a much bigger strain on the whole family — and what it truly means to lose one's memory, and then therefore will become advocates.”

Seth Rogen and Lauren Miller Rogen’s new documentary Taking Care premieres Jan. 22.

Read the original article on People