Can dementia have a positive side effect?

Dementia is a cruel disease. It robs the sufferer of their soul.

@Hawaii_Jake My grandma had Alzheimer’s. She died when she was 93. It took her from breakfast to lunch to eat breakfast. They gave her a tiny room even though she paid $2,700/ month to the seniors home. She was able to speak until she was 90’s.

I was just wondering about myself? How to move on from my grief. Not trying to belittle dementia. Last year I had my driver’s license revoked because I failed a dementia test by one point.

Emotionally I feel better, and I was wondering if I was forgetting stuff, or truely moved on?

@RedDeerGuy1 That’s really scary. I’m very sad you lost your license. I think you might try doing word puzzles: crosswords and find-a-word type puzzles. That might help you feel like you are exercising your brain.

@Hawaii_Jake I watch YouTube videos, and do my free French lessons on Duolingo. I had my fill of puzzles word and otherwise as a teenager.

@RedDeerGuy1 Does that mean you were diagnosed with dementia? We don’t take dementia tests here to drive, just rules of the road and vision, so I’m curious.

@KNOWITALL I saw my dr today. She said that I am doing well in everything except my cholesterol. I forgot to ask her about my dementia test.

She even said that I don’t have diabetes.

@RedDeerGuy1 That’s terrific to hear from your doctor!

@RedDeerGuy1 Um, well I want to giggle at the irony of forgetting to talk to your doc about early onset dementia but it’s not funny. I hope you get some testing done just in case, buddy.

Maybe start keeping a notebooj by your chair so you can write things like that down?

Also my friend with Alzheimers is a very happy woman. Before she was a bit neurotic but that’s just my observation. Perhaps you can find research studies online about the mental affects of dementia?!

Yay for no diabetes, hope you stay off the soda though!! :)

To answer your question, no, there are no positive effects from dementia. You lose memories both good and bad. But apparently most of the memories you lose are more recent ones, as well as remembering how to do things like brushing your teeth or which room is yours in a care facility.

@all Thanks.

My mom had dementia, and my dad, who was in long-term care died about 9 months before she did. He did not have dementia. The only thing positive I will say is that I think it softened the blow for her a little when she found out because she was that much less aware. They had been married for 61 years

^^ …softened the blow for her a little when she found out because she was that much less aware.

That can have a reverse effect, also. My mother in law had to be told over and over that her husband had died because she kept forgetting and would ask where he was. Very terrible disease; torturous for the relatives still living. The person you know is physically present, but aren’t truly there.

You could rewatch a movie you like as if it were the first time.
You can forget the wrongs that have been done to you.

@smudges I took care of my mom for 3 years while she had dementia. I think in some ways I still haven’t recovered emotionally from that.

My Mom’s twin sister suffered from dementia. The negative effects far outweighed the negative effects. Yes, you may forget some bad memories, but it does terrible things to your brain.
My Mom got to a point that she no longer could go visit her twin. Her twin would lash out verbally or call my Mom demanding her to do things and speaking cruelness.
The thorns overtook the beauty of the rose.

My aunt was the same way. She lashed out at my cousin (her daughter) saying the most mean and cruel things. It was horrible and almost in the voice of the little girl Regan on the movie the Exorcist.
We had a man near my town that someone dropped off at the ER of a hospital. He waited for hours. Finally, he left and they found him 2 weeks later froze to death in a shed.
I can’t imagine the good outweighs the bad with dementia.

@chyna there is definitely a stage where the person is very angry. My mom had invited to me to move in with her when my dad went into long-term care and my lease was about to run out. My siblings all thought it was a great idea so that I could be there with her. Well, after moving in, she pretty much started from day one getting angry at me about the most ridiculous things. I didn’t want to respond because I knew it was her dementia talking, so I would just go up in my room and distance myself. Later on, the angry outbursts stopped, a relief on one hand, but also not good news because I knew that when she was progressing further with the disease.