The fearful situation I selected in my previous blog #1 post was experiencing Alzheimer’s and dementia. I picked these two diseases because they overtake your life so drastically, which is truly unfortunate. Not all cases are the same, and some can range widely in severity, from acute to mild to severe, depending on the progression. The disease strikes a lot of fear into me because I’m the oldest child, and being independent has always been the norm for me. I crave and live for my alone time, and I’m appreciative every day I have an able body, which allows me to perform my everyday tasks and then some without assistance. I couldn’t fathom not even being able to use the bathroom without assistance due to my worsening health conditions. You often see severe dementia and Alzheimer’s disease patients needing to be in high-security-level facilities for fear they may escape and end up on the highway. I don’t want to be that grandma someone finds in the middle of the night at McDonald’s, wearing only my PJs…
Another condition that comes with the disease is memory loss. I’m big on nostalgia and reminiscing about old stories with my loved ones, and to lose my ability to do so would be heartbreaking. I’ve always taken pride in having a good memory and being able to recount so many stories. To lose that special trait would be a slight identity crisis because that was such a great character trait I had.
If I were to be diagnosed with the disease, I would be in denial more than likely. Depending on the severity, the loss of physical and mental cognates might not be as severe. However, regardless, knowing that the person I once was won’t be the same would be devastating. It would be hard for me to adjust. I’m sure my family would call me grumpy because I’m not always open to them coming into my house to try to rearrange my belongings. Once again, I’m a stubborn, independent person, and I know it will only get worse with age because as I lose control of my body functions, I will want the ability to try to control something.
The first step to achieve resilience is to connect with my community. Finding elderly individuals who share similar concerns or have already been diagnosed with the disease to gather their thoughts and opinions. I’m also extending the invitation to my loved ones so they can see a better perspective on my point of view. This would equip not only me but also my family members on how interactions may start to shift as we navigate the aging process.
The second step would be to set goals and tasks for myself to accomplish on a weekly basis. That looks like three laps around the neighborhood daily, or finishing one crossword puzzle weekly, etc. Setting up goals and rewards motivates me to complete my tasks. After every accomplishment, I treat myself to a little gift, such as a sweet treat, a new perfume, or nice shoes—at least one item to keep rewarding myself and watering my own flowers. Self-care and love are the best acts you can do for yourself.
Dementia is a prevalent and widespread disease, and by the year 2050, it is projected that 130 million people will be diagnosed with it. Typically, dementia is accompanied by other medical conditions such as hypertension and diabetes. It can be caused by brain injury or disease. This surprised me because, to my knowledge, dementia was only caused by unpreventable brain diseases. This raises concerns about sports players, such as football players and wrestlers, who frequently experience head trauma during physical activities. I am aware of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) and its dangers, but I wonder if these athletes are also more susceptible to developing dementia. Most people diagnosed with dementia have a mixed form, which is a combination of Alzheimer’s disease and vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID). Essentially, dementia is an umbrella term that includes various cognitive diseases leading to impairment of both physical and mental health. I always associated dementia primarily with Alzheimer’s disease, but now I understand it is also linked with other diseases like Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease. It is no surprise that when testing for dementia, it is essential to have someone familiar with the patient’s history to answer questions about their past behaviors. This can highlight uncommon behaviors and provide more information. However, I question how dementia is accurately diagnosed in elderly people who do not have family members and live in nursing homes. Nurses and doctors only know these patients to a limited extent, so how can they truly determine what behaviors are common or uncommon? Also, without family members to provide history or speak on behalf of the patient, I assume that part is trickier.
Reference
Arvanitakis, Z., Shah, R. C., & Bennett, D. A. (2019). Diagnosis and management of dementia: A review. JAMA, 322(16), 1589–1599. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2019.4782
Hello Iyanna! I can connect with your fears of developing cognitive decline conditions. I appreciate how you tied in your loss of independence and ability to be nostalgic as to why those conditions scare you. It’s interesting how you also pointed out that developing those conditions can also be seen as a loss of identity. I feel like we spend our whole lives figuring out who we are, and when we finally do, to develop a condition that takes away that lifetime of work can be devastating. I also liked your point on resiliency. Our posts had similar points in connecting with peers who are going through the same struggles so you can strengthen your social support system. I also liked that you included goal setting. I also believe that there’s some research reporting that maintaining physical activity and doing mental exercises can help ease dementia symptoms. You make a great point with you question on how professionals conduct dementia diagnosis assessments if there is no friends or family to report what behaviors are normal for them. It would be difficult to diagnose someone if the professional doesn’t know the client’s baseline behaviors. I also believe that Alzheimer’s disease has some biological indicators such as proteins in the blood stream or abnormalities in the brain. That doesn’t mean that a biological diagnosis should be the primary diagnosis tool as both the behavioral and biological factors should be taken into account. You also mentioned how sports players like football players are more susceptible to head injuries which may cause dementia later in their life. I wonder if this may play a part in reducing the stigma around dementia in it not just being a “older adulthood” condition.
Hi Iyanna,
What I found especially powerful is that your first step to building resilience, connecting with your community, essentially answers your own concern about how dementia can be accurately diagnosed in individuals without family members present. By building a strong social network and maintaining close relationships with peers, you’re ensuring there are people who know you well enough to notice even subtle changes in your behavior, memory, or daily functioning. This type of social connectedness can help fill the gap when medical providers don’t have access to a patient’s full personal history. You also mentioned setting goals and celebrating accomplishments. This step strengthens resilience by protecting your sense of identity and independence. I can’t help but contemplate how these anchors of stability assist twofold by also giving your inner circle insight into what matters most to you. Your own steps appear to be part of the solution. If more people intentionally cultivated strong networks and documented their values, preferences, and routines, providers would have richer sources of information to draw from. This ties directly into social workers’ role in advocating for person-centered care in nursing homes, ensuring that residents’ life stories and daily rhythms remain central to their care.
I also appreciated your mention of rewarding yourself with a sweet treat. It reminded me of research on how older adults often experience changes in taste buds, with sweetness being one of the last sensations to fade. This is why nursing homes sometimes use maple syrup or other sweet flavors to help residents enjoy meals and maintain interest in eating.