Signs that are, easily, missed out on, by the families, this is, the preset to, dementia! From the Front Page Sections, translated…
As the month of offering to the dead just passed, everybody is, very careful during this particular time of the year, and yet, no matter how careful, it’s, only, a rite; but, if the elders at your home told of how they’re, seeing spirits floating around, then, we may need to consider, that perhaps, we might, need to, take them in for an examination, this may be the precursor to Lewy body dementia.
This happened in the treatment clinics, the son brought his mother to the neurology office to see me, complained on how his mother refused to go to bed, how she’d, only, fallen asleep for a bit on the chairs; that his mother started having the darker rings around her eyes from lack of sleep.
The son only wanted me to give her a prescription of sleeping pills to help his mother rest more, otherwise, they will, both collapse. I’d asked the woman, why she only sat in the chairs, and not wanted to go to bed to sleep? She’d looked at me, with fatigue, and shocked us all with her replies, “I can’t get on my bed to sleep! There are, so many people on there! How do I, chase them all off? I see how sound asleep they all are, and I couldn’t, have it in me, to wake them all up.”
At that moment, the son opened up his eyes wide, and realized, that his mother was having, a more serious problem in her cognitive abilities. I’d told him, there’s, a higher occurrence of dementia called Lewy Body dementia that’s more prevalent in the older adults; the person would have the jerks like in Parkinson’s, and they would have vivid hallucinations too, and shifts in and out of consciousness quite often.
And, other than “seeing the spirits” the individual may also exert a symptom. And the symptom is, easily, misconstrued as, “being possessed” at the beginning of time. There was a patient’s family who’d stated, “my wife was normal one day, and the next, not, when she’s normal, she could eat, read the papers, but when she’s not, she’d started, rolling around on the floors, and couldn’t understand our words at all”. The husband asked me with fear on his face, “is it because of how her blood flowed fine one day, but not the next? Or, is it, something bad that’s, haunting her?” this is, a classic symptom of Lewy Body Dementia! I’d, patiently explained the symptoms, taught the families how to use a more natural state of mind, to look after their, loved ones.
The Lewy Body Dementia is not well-known to the public, but, like all other forms of dementia, the symptoms can be controlled with medications, the best way of caring, is through the arrangements of every day activities, to help alleviate the symptoms, and so, it’s vital, that the families used the right attitudes in interacting with their loved ones; so, don’t jump into the “the meds will fix everything” mindset, and don’t trust those, “exorcisms” performed by the temples either. What we can do is, to talk with our loved ones, for instance, the child should inquire more about the parents’ days, to help them let down their guards, and then, the child would know, that the problem goes beyond just, the insomnia.
Toward the children who are, caring for their elders, we should, spend more time to accompany, to observe and to communicate, and we also, need to understand the various types of dementia, and the different symptoms of each, so when we noted something “weird” about our elders, we can, give them the right kinds of help they needed, and, it will also, reduce the hardships in taking care of them as well.
And so, because, the Asians are a superstitious culture, that’s why the families would be more prone to believe that the elders were, POSSESSED and this mindset will keep the elders from getting their formal diagnoses sooner, thus, delaying their treatment, and in the end, the elders, as well as the families of these demented elderly, are harmed even more, and it’s still all because of??? SUPERSTITION!