What I Imagine It’s Like to Be My Family Member With Alzheimer’s
The Alzheimer’s-afflicted don’t get enough empathy.
The problem is, they can’t communicate themselves as well as they once could. Furthermore, they’re outnumbered by the non-Alzheimer’s-afflicted. Nobody around them knows what it’s like to have your brain slowly decay. Those around them are likely to view them as if aliens, in a way.
I wanted to write this reflection because I’ve noticed comments like, “Alzheimer’s is almost harder on the family than it is for the patient.” When I explain my family member’s affliction, folks may empathize with my situation more than with the direct victim here.
As I’ve mentioned before about my favorite book Suffering-Focused Ethics, there are a number of human psychological phenomenona that make it hard to see how bad suffering can get and to focus on those who are worst off. Instead, we more easily extend compassion to those who are suffering slightly or moderately, but not suffering so much that it’s unpleasant to contemplate, or even impossible for us to relate to because we’ve never been through anything that compares.
I don’t want to entirely criticize this shortcoming in myself or in others, because compassion is general is a great thing to positively reinforce. I want to treat compassion as a gift that doesn’t have…
