Diamond Author
So this is helpful check-list for you, so you can figure out whether your person with dementia is dementia-normal.
Dementia Normal:
1. Forgets some things or almost everything, about today, yesterday, the last decade, the last 50 years;
2. Lifelong skills forgotten;
3. Calls you Mom or Dad;
4. Puts sheets in the oven;
5. Loses everything;
6. Wanders around at night;
7. Gets lost;
8. Can't follow logical discussion;
9. Gets upset and fractious when confused or tired;
10. Eats lots of sweet stuff;
11. Afraid of the shower;
12. Can't find the bathroom.
Dementia Unusual:
1. Sees things that aren't there;
2. Thinks the television is talking to them;
3. Fears intruders;
4. Claims people are stealing from them;
5. Has raging days;
6. Reluctant to see family members;
7. Won't change clothes;
8. Hides things away;
9. Refuses all medication for fear reasons;
Needs Further Diagnosis:
1. Creates turmoils at night;
2. Has night terrors;
3. Extremely fearful and reclusive;
4. Calls police to report non-existent breakins;
5. Bad stories, untrue, about neighbors;
6. Hits out;
7. Fears poisoned food and drink;
8. Plans and carries out attacks;
9. Hears threatening voices, at silent times;
10. Feels pursued by enemies;
11. Relives trauma;
Now, I'm not trying to diagnose anybody here. What I am trying to do is to encourage doubtful family members to get, to INSIST, on getting expert consultation with a psychiatrist. No family should be trying to live with a person who has serious mental illness without a lot of extra help, support and perhaps medication for that person.
When a family is left with an erroneous and careless diagnosis of dementia, they will often struggle on for years, assuming that the difficult and challenging issues of their family member is normal dementia. That is a debilitating and destructive process for everyone.
Dementia care of real people with real dementia is not like that. I'm not saying it's always fun and easy, because it's not. But it really can be fun and often has reward and interest going on, with a real sense of being able to make deep heart contact with that person you care for.
It's not usually filled with the terror, distortion of reality and struggle that caring for a seriously mentally-ill parent with no help from psych meds and psych expertise is likely to be.
I read the on-line sites on dementia and Alzheimer's care and I am often appalled at what families are left to deal with which, in my own non-medical opinion, sounds like extremely serious conditions of mental illness.
How can this be going on? Well, you can blame much of that on the demonization of Alzheimer's disease which brings lots of money into various organizations and drug companies, alas. Also, families apparently don't even question the diagnosis they are given. Probably I wouldn't either if I hadn't seen so much Dementia Normal.
Getting the right diagnosis for mental illness in elders takes determination. First, a family has to trust its own sense that something beyond dementia is going on here.
However, I have always found that a family does in fact kind of, sort of, deep down have that sense about their mentally ill elder. What they sometimes lack is the courage to go further.
However, it's easier than you think. Under Medicare, you can go to your parent's doctor, with an outline of what you see in list form, and ask, or demand, that the parent gets a referral to a psychiatrist.
I promise you, it will help. A lot.
About this Author
Frena Gray-Davidson, Alzheimer's caregiver and author of five caregiving books, including her latest book "Alzheimer's 911: Hope, Help and Healing for Caregivers", available at http://www.amazon.com. Frena teaches care families and professionals to decode the language of dementia and achieve successful behavior interventions. Go to her website at [http://www.alzguide.com/] and sign up for her free monthly online newsletter for all involved in dementia care. Email her at frenagd@gmail.com.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Frena_Gray-Davidson
