What I Wish People Knew About Dementia: From Someone Who Knows

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The author's ability to write at a professional level was not affected in any way, she could type out her thoughts perfectly and wrote two books, this the second. She could travel around the country, taking pictures everywhere so she could see visually where she was, where she should be and where she had to return to and then give a speech. She couldn't speak off the cuff, but could read what she had typed out. Hence her miraculous-seeming ability to write this book and read it for the audio edition which I had. Wendy hopes What I Wish People Knew About Dementia will help show the condition is about much more than memory loss. When Wendy Mitchell was diagnosed with Young Onset Dementia at the age of fifty-eight, her brain was overwhelmed with images of the last stages of the disease — those familiar tropes, shortcuts and clichés that we are fed by the media, or even our own health professionals. I was so pleased to read that Wendy began to see her condition as a gift, a chance to experience the world with fresh eyes and embraced her new way of living, devoting her time to educating doctors, caregivers, and other people living with dementia, helping to reduce the stigma surrounding disease, and paving the way for those who are following to have an easier ride..

Five years before passing away, my grandma was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Although our family has genetics of dementia, we often denied that it will be passed down through the family. Touch becomes more important than ever: a ten-minute massage makes all the difference to someone who is feeling disengaged from their world. In her book, Somebody I Used to Know, she talks about her daughter’s cat Billy who kept getting fatter and fatter. It’s been over eight years since Mitchell, a former NHS manager, was diagnosed with young-onset dementia at the age of 58. Thankfully, her disease has progressed slowly: Mitchell is still able to live independently in a village in East Yorkshire, with help from her daughters, Sarah and Gemma, who live close by. Wendy finds images speak more to her than words so in her blogs she uses a lot of photos. “Photographs make me happy. People never take photos of people in a bad mood. When I feel anxious I go into my memory room which is filled with photographs and I look at them.A chance conversation led me to Wendy Mitchell’s first book (thanks, Jill) and to Wendy’s blog https://whichmeamitoday.wordpress.com/ . I follow Wendy’s blog partly to read about her work as an advocate for dementia sufferers and partly to enjoy the magnificent photographs she takes on her (almost) daily trundles around the village where she lives in Yorkshire, UK. I find Wendy inspirational and have been eagerly awaiting the publication of this book. Wendy was diagnosed with dementia in 2014. The book is quite enlightening, I had never thought of how the senses might be affected, noises, hallucinations of smell, all kind of things. So it is interesting, but repetitive and although not in any way 'poor me' it is very much 'see things our way' and although that is the purpose of the book, it is hammered in continually. Wendy regularly travels to conferences and events giving talks on dementia and has written a bestselling memoir about her experiences called Somebody I Used to Know. More recently she wrote What I Wish People Knew About Dementia: From Someone Who Knows. What is early onset dementia? She criticises the diagnostic process as being “far too clinical” and makes it very clear that there is much room for improvement in professional language used around the condition – for example, terms like “challenging behaviour” – and in attitudes towards people with dementia.’ But Mitchell tells us that there is a bright side, and she teaches us how to get to that side. She explains the problems caused by the inability of a dementia patient to find her co-ordinates or recognise landmarks when out walking; but that does not stop her from her long walks in the countryside.

When people think of dementia, they immediately associate it with memory. Few people realise, for example, just how it changes our relationships with our senses, our emotions, our communication. Few people understand the importance of a good environment – both inside and out – after a dementia diagnosis, and the small changes that can make a big difference. Unless you tell them, or talk about it, people will never know the difference dementia makes to your relationships – and how to make them work better. And if you don’t know any of this at all, how can you be responsible for your attitude?” This is a book whose purpose is to convert despair into hope . . . A kind of how-to manual for people with the condition and those who support them. It proceeds by a practical and calming formula: take a difficulty and find a way to overcome it. Running under all the commonsense pieces of advice is a deeper and more existential message, one for all of us, young and old, in health or frailty: be kind, be attentive, be resilient, bend with change rather than be broken by it, connect, forgive, accept, embrace. Live. All through my younger years, I was guilty of wishing for the next weekend, the next holiday. Dementia has taught me to stop, look and enjoy what’s in front of me, to enjoy the ‘now’ things. There’s beauty in simple things, from a bird in a tree, to an object you love. Never give up on yourself – others will do that for you. You never know what opportunities will come, and if this moment isn’t a good moment, the next one might be wonderful. People assumed because I had been diagnosed with dementia, I had immediately jumped to the late stage of dementia. Dementia is such a vast spectrum. Some days I have bad brain fog but I know if today is bad then tomorrow will be better.Currently 50 million people worldwide live with dementia; it is estimated this will increase to 152 million by 2050. So we’d better all buy this godsend of a book. Here's how, with your support, Age UK is supporting older people through the cost of living crisis. Therefore it is important not to treat the person with dementia as though all of them was affected (although it might be). There is much in this book that gives advice and tips on how to be with, treat and make allowances for those with a brain degenerative disease. She discusses not just the practical, but also respect for the afflicted, mood, philosophy and the adjustment all connected to the person will have to make, themselves included. Even when they seem to be in denial. The best kind of treads are those where the edges are clearly marked, particularly in yellow, as is often the case with outdoor staircases. I decided this is why I so often fall up and down my stairs at home, as they are carpeted with no clear edge. Now I have two stair banisters, one on each side, to hold on to to make it less likely.