Thursday, December 27, 2012

Are Dementia Patients Villains? Terrorists?


I'm sitting here contemplating. I'm thinking. I'm wondering why? My thoughts and beliefs about dementia are so very different than many. Probably most people.

By Bob DeMarco 
Alzheimer's Reading Room
 

Are Dementia Patients Villains? Terrorists?
Why?

Today I read this description of Alzheimer's,

"The disease consists of equal measures of despair and terror, with little room for levity."
I found this tremendously disconcerting.

Am I confused? I have my own very strong beliefs about Alzheimer's.

For one, I believe Alzheimer's patients, the deeply forgetful, are capable of more than we can imagine with our brains. 

I believe that we, the caregivers, are constrained by our brains. Odd, or perhaps ironic. 

By ironic I mean what is actually happening in the heads of a person living with Alzheimer's or a related dementia. I believe that what is going on in there is contrary to what we expect. Contrary to what we believe, contrary to what we imagine.

Let's face it, we all start, or at least most of us, "brainwashed".

We can't help but believe the stigma attached to Alzheimer's. We can't help ourselves, not at the beginning anyway.

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