Three Things I Regret – Are You Doing Them, Too?

Although it was difficult for me to master the new approaches, when I finally did our relationship blossomed again and life with him was much more peaceful and emotionally rewarding. By Marie Marley Alzheimer's Reading Room As Leeza Gibbons wrote in her book, Take Your Oxygen First, “If you’re caring for someone with Alzheimer’s and you’ve never lost your temper with the person – just wait. You will.” To that I add: If you don’t, then either you’re a saint or you’re incredibly out of touch with your feelings. I was a caregiver for seven long years for Dr. Edward Theodoru, my beloved Romanian soul mate of three decades. In the early and mid-stages of his dementia I did many things I was later not proud of. At all. Subscribe to the Alzheimer's Reading Room Email: Losing My Temper Ed had a short temper and as his Alzheimer’s progressed he began losing his temper more often. He got angry and yelled at me frequently. At that time I wasn’t aware that yelling back was not a good solution. I later learned that quickly changing the subject would lead to a better outcome. But in the meantime what I did was yell back, which only escalated his anger. Probably the two greatest arguments were when I was trying to persuade him to stop driving and when I was doing my best to get him to move into a long-term care facility. Both of these arguments lasted for months, and I expressed anger in response to his on a regular basis. ...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - Category: Dementia Authors: Source Type: blogs