The Difference Between Forgetfulness and Alzheimer's

In this video excerpt, Teepa role-plays the difference between a person that is forgetful and a person that is living with dementia.






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[AegisAuras]

I think one of the scarier parts of dementia is how confident those that have it are in their false memories.

[richardp]

A long time ago, I had read a quote on Alzheimer’s that someone had said: “Alzheimer’s isn’t forgetting where your keys are. Alzheimer’s is forgetting what a key _is.”_

[katiedoucet]

I used to take care of dementia patients. I was shocked by the complexity of the disorder. It is not just forgetfulness like I had thought. One woman and I literally had the same conversation repeatedly for three hours. I still acted as shocked to hear her big reveal every time she told it and always played dumb like we didn’t just talk about it. It was really sad but at least telling her story brought a smile to her face :)

[miloelite]

My Grandma’s one wish was that, no matter how old she got, she could keep her memory. When Alzheimer’s had long taken most of her memories/daily functioning from her, she once again shared this oft-repeated wish with me & and expressed how grateful she was that God had granted her this one desire and left her brain intact. She didn’t even realize she was gone.

[JennWatson]

That pretend phone call sounded so natural and pleasant!

[howellwong]

My sister had dementia and died at age 90, but my other sister die at age 95 and had a mind as sharp as a tack. I'm 89 years old and still can think normally. Thank you God.

[ann_]

My grandpa suffers from dementia and has good and bad days. One time he asked me “what are those white things in the sky?” pointing at clouds. I realised how much dementia can distort the brain and memory. Weirdly it was also kinda wholesome because he looked at them with wonder like a child does, saying how pretty they looked

[GruppeSechs]

This is what an engaging teacher looks like. For people like me, it was the difference between getting an A in a class and checking out halfway through the semester.

[lipegr]

I’m a caregiver. I let them believe whatever they want and I just join them in their world. I have the most fun with them, especially when we have conversations. I make up stuff that fits whatever narrative they’re living in in that moment. If they don’t want to go to lunch, I might act like we’re best friends and we have a special lunch date. I want to always preserve their dignity.

[TwirlGirl]

Despite a lack of family history of dementia, my mother has been terrified for years that she’s in the early stages of Alzheimer’s (she’s in her early 60’s). I sent her this video and it immediately relieved her of all her fear that she’s losing her marbles. She is so happy and I can tell it feels like a weight has been lifted off her shoulders.

[zoenelson]

Teachers like this are what made me want to go to school, the examples and the explanations they gave were always so memorable it's impossible not to learn and also have fun at the same time!
I wish there were more teachers like this though, I barely had any that were this amazing at teaching, the rest just did the bare minimum and didn't even seem to care about what they taught, those classes were a genuine struggle to get through as my ADHD saw them as unimportant and a waste of energy and effort. It's hard to get motivated about something even the person teaching you it doesn't seem to care about.

[drgnfrc]

Instructors like this are one of the few things I miss about being in college.

[BzKnz]

As a cop, an eldery woman with dementia kept calling to report exactly what this professor described. She believed a man was breaking into her house, moving things, and eating her food. The poor woman was distraught and looked so scared every time we would see her.

My partner and I tried to go the medical route for the first few months these calls kept coming in but that didn't seem to be having any progress. She likely was forgetting to take her prescriptions or they just weren't actually helping.

So, I just started telling her that I caught the guy who was doing it. That he got life in prison for eating her peanut butter and would never see the light of day again. It seemed to calm her down and give her some degree of piece of mind.

We got drastically fewer calls after that. I hope she is doing better.

[dustymiller]

Depending on your age:
If you're young, then this video is a novelty and is entertaining.
If you are middle aged and have older parents, then this video is interesting and serves as a sober warning to upcoming future events.
If you are reaching sixty years of age, this video is more than educational because you've seen the serious stuff happen to your parents and everyone their age, and you might be in the very first stages of that yourself.
It is my hope that you will have the patience, wisdom, and support to deal with it; love always~❤️

[lumlee]

My grandfather has dementia, and I went to visit him with my family very recently. We showed him a bunch of pictures from when he was younger, like at his wedding. He recognized his parents in the photos, and we were quite shocked. My grandpa can't even recognize my dad (his son) and my uncles, but when we showed him a picture of my dad when he was a very young child, my grandpa suddenly started talking abt my dad and saying things like "he's a good boy." Suffice to say, there was a lot of emotion that day.

[wandaswavely]

I knew when my husband started showing signs of dementia. When we were first married, by e would give me a rose for every year we were married, 6 years later, he forgot and so I teased him that he didn't get me roses and he screamed I never bought you flowers. Where we lived, he grew up there and he would forget to turn in to our road. These two episodes were just the beginning. Dementia/ alzheimers is a very sad and cruel disease. He's had dementia for 15yrs., you know he will never become his old self, as the caregiver, it breaks my heart to see him slowly losing everything that was important to him. I'm happy to be his caretaker, I know he won't be around much longer.

[jeffersonianideal]

Being forgetful is not remembering it's your anniversary. Having Alzheimer's is forgetting you have a wife.

[notamexican]

As someone dealing with Alzheimer's firsthand as a forgetful person, this is real. I forget to officially clock out at work every now and again, and I forget to change the oil in my truck on regular intervals. My grandmother can't distinguish between me and my father, she forgets that she's 86 and not living in Iowa, and she has to be reminded daily on how to operate the microwave: none of this ever sticks. If she remembers that I'm her firstborn grandson, she's blown away that I'm 6' tall, have graying hair and a full beard.
Still, there are no scientific advancements on Alzheimer's, but we can fucking redefine a woman.

[TailsClock]

"This is senile forgetfulness, you peaked at 25." I'm 30 and now I am terrified. Also she's a great actor!
Finishing this though, I now feel relieved. I hate being forgetful, but I guess knowing how much worse it can get puts things in perspective.

As a parnoid schizophrenic however... The idea that in my old age I'll start finding constant proof for my delusions is actually much more scary than anything I had ever imagined. I'll be carrying that fear with me until the end. I suppose knowing now is probably better than being unprepared but still...

[Andrew-wvqp]

My father-in-law has dementia and recently we were driving to a diner where he loved to have dinner. On the way, we had to stop for a large group of geese that had decided to cross the road, maybe 20 to 30 of them. By the time we got to the diner, about 10 minutes later, he refused to get out of the car. He demanded to know what happened to the turkeys. We found out he thought the geese were turkeys and they were on the ground because they had been shot down and were now dead. He was very upset about this, and for days, he kept asking "who killed those birds?" Telling him the birds didn't die did not help. Eventually we told him "it probably was the government" and then he seemed satisfied.