If you’ve ever seen a news story or read an article about Alzheimer’s disease, chances are you’ve wondered if you or someone you love might have it.
We’ve all been there. And while the biggest risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease is age, it’s easy to worry unnecessarily.
One of these moments of panic happened for me about ten years ago while watching the Oprah Winfrey Show.
An expert began describing the symptoms of dementia and stated (correctly) that the age of the youngest person to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease was 27.
Yikes!
You could almost hear a pin drop in the studio until the expert cut through the then almost palpable anxiety like a hot knife through butter with the following statement:
“Alzheimer’s is not forgetting your keys. It’s forgetting what your keys are for.”
Ah-ha. I breathed a very big sigh of relief on that one, not only for myself, but for the family members that I had already diagnosed in the first 22 minutes of the show!
Since then I’ve learned a lot more about the symptoms of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. I’ve also come to appreciate how much that simple statement really does say it all.
One symptom (forgetting your keys) suggests age-related forgetfulness and the other (forgetting what your keys are for) suggests Alzheimer’s or another severe impairment in brain functioning.
So, what if you haven’t forgotten what your keys are for but you still worry that your forgetfulness isn’t normal?
Well, then you should make an appointment with your doctor. Once you’ve done that, the video below by Teepa Snow is for you. It’s a fantastic illustration of what normal age-related forgetfulness looks like and what it doesn’t.
If you’ve never heard of Teepa Snow, then I am delighted to introduce you. She is an occupational therapist by training, but far better known as a dementia care and training specialist. She is also the best presenter I have ever heard on any topic.
Now I know those are some strong words from a newbie blogger, but I mean them wholeheartedly. And no – she did not ask me to say that. In fact, she doesn’t even know me. That’s just my honest opinion having spent a day at one of her trainings a few years back – a day in which I learned more about how dementia affects the brain than I had at about 40 other trainings put together.
Seriously, she is that good.
For those of you who may be unable to watch the video, I’ll summarize it here. There is a HUGE difference between Alzheimer’s and normal age-related forgetfulness.
Here’s what you need to know before I describe the scenarios in Teepa’s video:
When we want to do something like make a pot of coffee, that thought goes into our working memory. The working memory is the part of the brain that allows us to stay focused on a task, to organize and to plan. However, the bad news, as Teepa explains, is that our working memory is very small and can only hold about 5-8 chunks of information at any one time.
And now for the examples…
An example of age-related forgetfulness from Teepa’s video:
Jenny wants to make coffee and that thought goes into her working memory. She leaves the chair where she was reading in the living room and heads to the kitchen. On her way into the kitchen, the phone rings and Jenny’s friend invites her to go to the mall later that afternoon.
Jenny talks with her friend about where they’ll meet, what they’ll eat, who they will invite to come along, etc. By the time Jenny hangs up the phone, she’s forgotten all about the coffee she wanted to make. She looks around the kitchen, but can’t remember so she heads back to her chair in the living room. Once she sits down in the chair and starts to read again, the memory returns – coffee!
This is normal and not dementia. Teepa explains that as we get older we require more cues to remember things. So in the example, Jenny actually needed to go back to what she was doing before the call – she needed to go back to her chair – in order to remember her thought to make coffee. When she gets there and sits down, the memory returns. Sitting in the chair was the cue she needed.
Example of Alzheimer’s from Teepa’s video:
As in the first example, Jenny heads to the kitchen to make the coffee and is interrupted by the phone call. However, when she hangs up the phone not only does she not remember the coffee, her attention gets diverted and she begins to do illogical things.
For example, she sees a bottle of water and a glass on the counter top and feels she’s found the proof she’s been looking for that people have been sneaking up through the basement and eating her food. She decides to put the glass in the freezer so her son will see it when he goes to get some ice. While this behavior would seem illogical to you or me, it makes sense to Jenny and she spends much of her day doing things like this.
Later on Jenny’s friend calls because she is late to meet her at the mall. Jenny doesn’t have any recollection of the call at all. Despite her friend’s efforts to remind her of what they discussed, Jenny can’t remember and becomes agitated at the friend.
The lack of recall and illogical behavior described above is not normal and most likely a symptom of dementia.
Does the information in this article make sense?
If not, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly or through the comments section.
And just one last thing. Teepa lives in North Carolina and if you do too, you have a much better chance of catching one of her presentations. I think her website even has a calendar to show you where she’ll be and when.
If you are caring for someone with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia, promise me that you’ll do what you can to see Teepa in person should you get the chance.
I can almost guarantee that it will change your life.
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