It is a common reaction to try and correct a loved one when they don't recognise you and call you by the wrong name. It is again a normal reaction to try to correct them if they tell you that they're waiting for the boyfriend they had at 17 when they are clearly well past their 70s.
Unfortunately these slips in memory may become more frequent as a loved one progresses further and further into Alzheimer's disease. Alot of the time your loved one may become unsettled and even angry if you correct them. A number of articles have been written on how to respond to loved ones suffering from Alzheimer's.
The Free Library has written an interesting article titled A world of their own that explores how it might work if we don't continually try to bring them back from their false sense of reality.
Memory fails us all sometimes. (Quick what did you have for dinner last night?) Over time, our memory lapses multiply, a medical fact of life that we attribute to eroding brain cells and simple aging. Eventually, short-term memory may be all but lost, so we cling to that which was comfortable – the good old days.
But Alzheimer’s disease goes one horrible step further, submerging its victims’ minds into decades-old realities from which they can never emerge.
The process begins with simple memory loss, but gradually "Where are my car keys?" turns into I've forgotten how to drive." It escalates to the point where victims no longer recognise their closest loved ones.
But if you think it's frightening for the relatives of an Alzheimer's patient, imagine what it must be like to have the disease.
"I believe it's close to being dropped off in a foreign country, where the language is foreign, the people are foreign, and everything around you is something you've never seen before," says Jeannette Smith, executive director of Arden Courts, a Sarasota assisted living.
Traditional therapies for Alzheimer's involved reminding--and often challenging--patients to return to their present surroundings. But a therapy called "validation" seeks instead to provide a comfortable existence for the patient within whatever reality they choose.
That means if an 84-year-old woman wants to dress every day for a job she no longer has, she should do so.
Validation therapy was pioneered by Naomi Feil, who developed an acute understanding of seniors while growing up in the nursing home her father managed. The technique encourages caregivers to identify and empathise with the disorientation that causes so much of the anguish of Alzheimer's.
According to Feil, patients under this treatment cry less, withdraw less, communicate more and are less aggressive. They need fewer chemical and physical restraints and seem to regain their sense of humour. But just as important, validation therapy has given caregivers higher morale and reduced burnout.
Validation is based on the theory that victims who lose their recent memory revert to pleasant periods in their lives. She suggests that instead of viewing Alzheimer's patients as diseased, we see them simply as very old people struggling to survive in whatever reality the condition has plunged them into.
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Feel unable to relate to your loved one when Alzheimer's transports them back to an earlier era? Find some movies from earlier decades your loved one likes or make them a CD with some old favourites.
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