My Mom Has Dementia…Where Do We Go From Here?
When someone you love is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or another dementia, the news can be devastating and the outlook bleak. But the truth is, there are thousands of people all over the world living rich and full lives for many years after diagnosis. What is their secret?
Hopeless. Helpless.
My first experience with dementia was typically tragic. Over the course of a decade, my grandmother transformed before my eyes from the most beautiful, classy woman I had ever known into someone who cried all the time and ate with her fingers at the dining table.
Receiving a diagnosis of dementia is a time of high emotions: shock, anger, fear and sometimes even relief. When these emotions aren’t processed and worked through, they can settle in the body and impact us physically. This can result in insomnia, headaches, loss of appetite, over-eating or a host of other symptoms.
Psychologically, our world is thrown upside down as we scramble to plan for an uncertain future. Spiritually, we may question our faith or our God and our purpose in life may seem less clear. We become socially isolated as we withdraw from our friends and communities, pulling into our shell to hide this shame from the world. Add on top of that the tremendous financial impact of a dementia diagnosis and you have a perfect…
