Yikes! I just learned that there are 4 “A’s” associated with Alzheimer’s. Amnesia, which everyone is familiar with, is of course the memory loss. But as I keep saying, Alzheimer’sis about so much more than memory and these other A’s seem to reinforce thatidea. I had never heard of these terms before (other than amnesia) so they were
certainly new to me.
Agnosia, is when a person can’t quite recognize what an item
is for or is unable to recognize it at all. For example, Laura was helping me
put up some dishes and she held up a spatula and asked “where does this go?”
Glancing over, I said, “top drawer, right of the stove.” Probably too many
words all at once, but she couldn’t get past the stove part. She started to say to herself, “stove, stove,
stove” as she did a 360 in the middle of the kitchen. I realized that she either didn’t see the
stove or if she did, she didn’t recognize it and so I pointed to the drawer and
said, “it goes right there – in that drawer.” But she was hung up now on
finding the stove and she kept looking for it. I had to finally touch the stove
and say “here is the stove and the spatula goes here” pointing to the correct
drawer. She muttered a quick “of course, what was I thinking?” and moved away,
but I could tell that she was both a little embarrassed and frustrated with
herself over the incident.
Aphasia is the inability to use speech correctly. Laura is frequently using general
descriptions now to identify an object as opposed to its name. This makes for a
dangerous game of charades, because I find that I must bite my tongue to keep
from giving her silly answers or get animated when she is trying to tell me
something. The last thing she needs is for me to interrupt her train of
thought. I have to pat myself on my back because I am getting pretty good at
deciphering her descriptions. Her speech is often halting, with many starts and stops and a lot of misdirection. “What are
you looking for Honey?” is a fairly common question these days. “It was right here… you know, the pink one
with…store… makeup… before… it….’ That was it; but it was enough. I was lucky
that she used two fairly key words in there to help me out: Pink and make-up. That
meant she was looking for the pink case where she keeps most of her makeup.
Sometimes I’m not so lucky.
The last ‘A’ is Apraxia. It is when there is a loss of
motor coordination. Laura has trouble now often doing simple tasks such as
buttoning her blouse or signing her name. It’s like she knows what she wants
to do, but can’t get her hands or fingers to cooperate. Sometimes she may reach
for something but miss it entirely or on the other extreme, hit it with her
hand.
Unfortunately Laura has her ticket punched for all of these,
and it is my job to see that she keeps her dignity by not calling attention to
them. Like most other symptoms of Alzheimer’s these come and go and vary in
degree of severity when they are around. Sometimes I marvel in that she can put on a necklace
that has a tiny, tiny clasp. Other times, she calls for help in tying a bow or
is incapable of turning the knob to turn on a lamp.
All of the A’s are bad but we’ll somehow work through them
all, but the one that scares me the most is Agnosia. I’m dreading the day that she not only forgets what the stove is; but forgets who I am
as well.
Example of Star Trek Addressing Social Issues – Mental Illness
This scene got me right in the gut when I first saw it. It was revealed earlier in the episode that Garak suffers from extreme claustrophobia, experiencing a severe attack just a few scenes before this one. I was already expecting Martok and Worf to dismiss Garak’s mental illness, especially because the Klingon Empire prides its people on physical strength. I was waiting for them to call him a coward, not “getting over it” like I’ve heard so many times in my own life about mental illness. But as seen above that’s not what happened, the exact opposite does. Its moments like this that make me love Star Trek, even for all its flaws. Sometimes I get to see past my conditioned reaction of the worst, and get to see the best in people instead.
TDLR; Star Trek may be about aliens in the future, but it connects to me on a human level – more than most modern shows do today.
No one here seems interested in the grimy parts of mental health. Everyone wants to talk about mental illness as quiet introverts drinking tea and nervously stuttering over words. No one ever talks about symptoms like paranoia or hallucinations or hypersexuality or compulsions or homelessness or drug addiction or delusions or psychosis or violent urges. Every time a clearly mentally ill person commits a crime, and someone says, “Hey, maybe this is a sign that we need to improve mental health awareness in this country,” everyone goes to screaming: “This isn’t about mental illness! Mentally ill people aren’t violent!”
But yes, sometimes mentally ill people are violent. Sometimes we are bad people. And even those mentally ill people are in need of advocacy, maybe even more so.
When you post “Protect people with mental illnesses at all costs,” do you mean all of us, or just the cute ones?
I get sick of tumblr’s version of self care, which 90% of the time threads into this beautifully: go pet a fuzzy cute animal! pile up your favorite blankets from childhood and watch disney movies! take a nap! play a game from this list of cute soothings games!
More realistically: go take a shower because it’s been three days. Wash the dishes that have been in the sink since last Friday that you can smell as soon as you open your door because rotting food stinks. Pick all your clothes off the floor because that’s where your entire wardrobe is and you’ve already cried today because you tripped over a sweater and realized the cat puked on it. Call someone who can give you enough courage to pay that bill you’ve been ignoring. Put away the crackers because that’s all you’ve eaten for two days straight. Apologize to the friends who are worried sick about you, and if you can’t at least let them know you are ok and need space.
One of the most empowering types of self-care is responsibility, but tumblr just wants to sit in a closet strung with fairy lights and read their favorite fic.
“Cute” self-care for “cute” mental issues. That’s not reality.
it’s sort of ironic that the original article on spoon theory costs so many spoons to read, so i decided to write a brief summary for people who need it
spoon theory is an analogy
in it, spoons = energy
you get [x] number of spoons a day ([x] amount of energy), & doing things costs [x] number of spoons ([x] amount of energy)
for example, you get 10 spoons today; getting up costs 1, making food costs 2, making a phone call costs 2, watching a tv episode costs 2, etc
the purpose of spoon theory is to explain to abled/healthy people what being disabled/chronically ill is like, in a way they might find easier to understand
it highlights how little energy disabled/chronically ill people have when compared to abled healthy people, how much more energy things can cost, & how careful they have to be in prioritising what they spend that energy on
disabled/chronically ill people also use it as a way of talking about their energy levels
if you say “i’m low on spoons”, you’re not just saying you’re low on energy; you’re saying you’re low on energy because you’re disabled/chronically ill
for this reason, abled healthy people don’t get to say “i’m low on spoons”
Doctors are much more likely to level with patients who have cancer than patients who have Alzheimer’s, according to a report released this week by the Alzheimer’s Association. The report found that just 45 percent of Medicare patients who’d been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s said they were informed of the diagnosis by their doctor. By contrast, more than 90 percent of Medicare patients with cancer said they were told by their doctor.
The retired cop was an easy patient, who took his medicine without complaint. After an operation, the man went into a mental tailspin that his doctor realized had been in the making for years…
Never let anyone tell you that you are not worth being loved if you don’t love yourself. Never let anyone tell you that your mental illness is the reason why you are not in a relationship. Never let anyone tell you that you should smile more, fix your hair, or wear more color. Never let anyone make you feel bad about what you can’t always control.
What It’s Like To Be In Love When You Have Depression By: Holly Everett (source)
Holding the Bowl 