Quote:
Originally Posted by tabs
How bout before your dad got sick? I would expect that the knowledge that Dad was sick would cause her to exhibit some symptoms..that would fortell how she would be dealing with it once the event occured.
This seems to be her way of dealing with the loss...she would rather retreat into Dementia than face the emotional reality of her loss....The grief probably overwhelms her..and she does not know how she is going to face life without the man she was with for so many years...
This does not mean the Dementia is not real it is just a sort of caving into it..
Does she refer to happy memories from many years ago?
Get her to a new environment that breaks the cycle of memories and living in the past...she needs to see that life CAN go on after the old guy has passed. She as many others may chose that they just don't want to go on, that life holds nothing more for them...
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Tabs: Is your point that she is not suffering from an illness as such—but merely from deep grief? If so what's the difference if the symptoms are the same? Or is your point that it's self-inflicted because her life is suddenly pointless from her perspective, and there's nothing really we can do apart from trying to cheer her up with new distractions?
I'm only just beginning to do some reading on this, and it all seems pretty grim.
Thank you for your responses. Very interesting.