Dementia is a game changer if and when it kicks in. Count your chickens as lucky if you are alright, and have some compassion for those who suffer a life limiting condition!
Being content with your situation is what it is all about, feeling fulfilled and excited with the life you have chosen. Maybe you are wealthy, or perhaps only making ends meet in this eight-billion or so world-population. Making every moment count is what's important, whether it is small or large things that make you happy.
In other words, it comes down to your acceptance and appreciation of nature, your circumstances, what you can do to make your life enjoyable, and how you permit others to affect your mood. There is a fine line between positivism and negativism that needs to be understood and acted on when your predicament warrants challenge.
You ought to be aware of dream stealers, complainers, and those around you who are intent on not only getting sympathy, but pulling you into their negative world of suffering. Most don't realize it whilst others thrive on staying in a rut.
The more they complain, or try to blame others, sooner or later makes you realize how their negative energy is trying to bring you down. Being around those who are so wrapped up in their world has a way of sucking out your positive energy. It seems as though they are self-absorbed.
Actually, if you have too many problems to resolve you could end up like them seemingly, as nutty as a fruit cake. However, being around people like this tends to make you become self-aware which helps you steer clear of falling into the same predicament.
As a rule of thumb, if facing someone like this it’s best to be understanding, concerned about their situation, and sympathetic. It isn’t easy as they can go on. If it’s a loved one you should offer support, but at the same time don’t offer to do something you cannot provide.
My 97-year-old mother had shingles; Chicken pox reborn in one out of three over 50-year-olds which unfortunately occurred on the right side of her head. Consequently, after recovering from shingles it left a swollen side which a year along has created mild dementia.
She gets desperate somedays because she forgets what happened and seems to think she hit her head which she can’t explain, and then when whoever she is with tries to explain she goes off on a tangent trying to justify someone has done something to her.
She begins each day confused, as to why she can’t see from her right eye. Periodically, she says, ‘I wish I was dead!’ and then she tries to find reasons to avoid taking her tablets for heart, head, eyes and ears.
Bless her! She clearly is suffering the ordeal of not knowing what is going on. In some ways she is like a baby, but she remembers other things about her life, extremely clearly.
Take care!
Prof. Carl Boniface
Vocabulary builder:
Kicks in = (phrasal verb) to begin to take effect
Count your chickens (idiom) = If you say that someone is counting their chickens, you mean that they are assuming that they will be successful or get something, when this is not certain. I don't want to count my chickens before they are hatched.
Wrapped up (adj) Phrasal verb from the verb to wrap a present i.e. covering. (syn) shawl, cloak, stole, cape. In its adjective form it means engrossed, absorbed, preoccupied, obsessed, fascinated, gripped
As nutty as a fruit cake (idiom) = very strange, foolish, or crazy. “Despite his maddening fidgeting, the man is a charmer – intense, funny, and nutty as a fruitcake.” Fidgeting = fiddling, toying, playing around, twiddling
Tends (v) = inclines, have a habit of, have a tendency to, lean towards, de disposed, be likely to, be apt to, manages
Self-aware (adj) = knowing and understanding yourself very well: “He is self-aware enough to realize that he needs help.”
Swollen (adj) = enflamed, inflamed, engorged, puffy, enlarged, bloated, inflated, blown up, augmented
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