(Articol preluat de pe Alzheimer’s Reading Room – unul dintre blogurile cele mai utile pentru aparținătorii bolnavilor de demență. Creat pas cu pas, în urma experiențelor cu o bolnavă de Alzheimer. Aici găsiți ceea ce probabil nici un doctor nu vă va spune niciodată – mă rog, cel puțin în România. Într-o zi sper să îmi fac timp și pentru traducere ;))
Some Things I Learned in Alzheimer’s World
Many Alzheimer’s patients are afraid of water. This explains in part why they often refuse to take a shower. Water is more or less invisible to many dementia patients.
By Bob DeMarco
Alzheimer’s Reading Room
I understood from the beginning that when my mother was being mean spirited or acting downright crazy that it was the Alzheimer’s disease that was causing the problem.
In spite of knowing and understanding this as clear and clear can be, her new found behaviors were still upsetting to me and hurtful.
Many of our daily interactions lead to enormous stress. It was not unusual for my mother to go into her room, curl up in a ball on the bed, and start whimpering. I would wait awhile for things to calm down and then go in and talk to her. This rarely worked, and it rarely helped. In fact, it mostly made things worse.
The result would be me sitting in the living room with a sore heart and stomach asking myself – what can I do about this?
For a long time I was stymied. No matter how hard I tried the situation(s) continued to worsen.
It was not hard for me to understand that all of these episodes were being caused by Alzheimer’s disease.
Dementia was affecting my mother’s memory, thinking, judgment, behavior, and her ability to perform normal daily activities.
Simple right?
Not really. I found myself continually complaining to anyone that would listen about my mother’s behavior.
One day after listening to myself complain it finally dawned on me,
I am blaming my mother for her behavior.
I am blaming Dotty. I am not blaming Alzheimer’s, I am blaming my mother for her actions and behaviors.
Blaming Dotty for what? For behaviors and moods that were the result of the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
Why was I describing my mother as being mean and crazy when the simple fact was clear and evident,
Her brain was sick.
Why was this so hard to understand, comprehend and accept?
Later on, I learned that venting and complaining the way I did is a pretty common phenomena with Alzheimer’s caregivers.
Most of us, maybe all of us, do it.
I finally found a way to deal with my own shortcomings as a caregiver by inventing citeşte mai departe
Aurica A. Badea 