Showing posts with label distress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label distress. Show all posts

Monday, 27 January 2014

Suffering from dementia?

As you will have gathered from my previous post, I don't believe my wife is suffering now.  Of course, if her pre-dementia self could see her now and realise all that has been lost, it would be very distressing  -  to her pre-dementia self (as it is for me if I think about it).  But as she is now, she isn't aware of what she has lost so isn't distressed about that.

This article by a person living with dementia questions the common usage 'suffering from dementia':

http://www.thanksforthememory.org.uk/announcements/living-with-alzheimer-s-not-suffering-with-it

I think such articles serve a very useful purpose in reminding us that not all people living with dementia suffer.

However, it is clear that many do.  And certainly there have been points during my wife's journey when she has suffered, as my earliest posts demonstrate.