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Equipped to...Forgive when they Forget (Understanding Age-related Illness and Dementia)

This newsletter introduces "Diagnosing Dementia", a comprehensive article found on my website.

Forgetfulness vs Dementia

There is a very important difference between simple forgetfulness, which tends to increase naturally as we age, and dementia, which is a diagnosed medical disease.

Our brains decline in much the same way as our bodies as they age. They are just like our muscles in this way – if we don't use them we lose them. There are many things we can do to help keep our brains active into old age, and thus lessen our chances of becoming forgetful. (See below)

Dementia, on the other hand, has very specific symptoms and is characterised by multiple cognitive deficits.

Read more about the differences between Forgetfulness and Dementia

Fighting off Forgetfulness

After retirement, many people do not engage in activities that stretch their mental capacity at all - they lead a lifestyle of routine doing the same things week after week, month after month, year in and year out. If we want to keep our brain sharp, we have to keep it busy! We need to exercise our brains, just as we need to exercise our bodies.

There are many brain-building activities elderly people can consider. These include:

• Word games (crosswords, Scrabble, quizzes)
• Pick up a new hobby, where there are new things to learn all the time (bird watching, arts and crafts etc.)
• Attend speaker forums where you are introduced to new ideas and concepts and then discuss them.
• Join a discussion group
• Attend adult learning courses
• Become a member of a committee where decisions have to be made
• Read – fiction as well as non-fiction - and discuss the ideas.
• Keep up to date with technology – have lessons.

Read Diagnosing Dementia

Diagnosing Dementia

When we talk about someone having “Alzheimer’s” we actually mean they have dementia. Dementia has very specific symptoms (it is not just the commonly held belief of “a demented person being really batty!”)

Simply put, Dementia has the following symptoms:

1. Memory impairment (impaired ability to learn new information or to recall previously learned information).
2. One (or more) of the following disturbances:

         a) Aphasia (language disturbance)
         b) Apraxia (impaired ability to carry out
             motor activities despite intact motor
             function)
         c) Agnosia (failure to recognise or identify
             objects despite intact sensory function)
         D) Disturbance in executive functioning (i.e.
             planning, organising, sequencing,
             abstracting)

These symptoms start gradually and continue to get worse and worse.

(Refer to the full article, Diagnosing Dementia, on my website for detailed information, including causes and prevalence of this disease.)

Image by Rach Davies

What's next?

Watch out for my next newsletter where you will be E-Quipped to...Cope With The Challenge of Change.

Tip! Save these newsletters and accumulate the series on Putting the Logical Back into Psychological.

Regards

More about me

My goal in creating these newsletters is to inspire you to make the changes necessary to ultimately live the life of your dreams! On my website you'll find more ideas to get you thinking about life, love, work and other important STUFF - all based on my work as a practicing psychologist, speaker, trainer and life coach (and hat lover!)

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