Roberto Sedycias

Why Therapy Is Important For Alzheimer Patients And Families

When a loved one has Alzheimer’s, many symptoms will be at play that will take a toll on the patient and the patient’s entire family. If you have a loved one with Alzheimer’s, then family therapy is a good idea for the following reasons.

When a loved one has Alzheimer's many things will happen and will occur in a series of stages. Usually during the first stages, you will not even know that the person has it because you might attribute the signs and symptoms of forgetfulness and vague absentmindedness to ordinary signs of old age. However, as the stages progress to deeper ones and the brain further degenerates, Alzheimer's makes itself far more apparent and realized.

For example, your loved one will forget names and familiar places as well as not be able to perform normal calculations and recall things that happened recently. As the stages worsen, the patient will be unable to recognize your face and who you are and they will not know what year they are in or where they are. This might cause them to grow agitated or angry or withdrawn and sometimes even very depressed and miserable. In these cases, it will take a toll on you and your entire family as you feel like you are losing someone who is very dear and near to you.

In many ways, the patient slips away as the days go and degenerates slowly into someone that might feel like a stranger. That is why going to therapy with your entire family and the patient is very important in helping cope with this disease. It can be a highly traumatic thing for family members as well as the patient who might experience bursts of lucidity and not know what is going on. As the disease worsens, the patient might even wander away from the house in search of some destination because the present surroundings will feel so mysterious and confusing. In these cases, your loved one will need constant supervision so that he or she does not wander away, take a random bus, and get lost forever.

The person can be a danger to themselves if they are unaware of their surroundings or if it gets so progressed that they need help performing ordinary things like going to the restroom, bathing, and eating. In this case, if you are unable to care for your family member and cannot provide constant are and supervision, you might have to put them in an assisted care facility. This can be a trying process too, as many people feel helpless or hopeless at having to do this or they feel as though they are not taking on their responsibilities. That is why therapy can help you see that that is the best solution for a person who needs constant care and supervision.

Also, therapy can help you with coping with the symptoms that you see in your loved one, how to handle the bursts of lucidity and make the most of them, and how to help the person try to salvage as much memory as possible by being there with them, retelling stories of the past, and keeping them company during this tough time. No one can go through something this difficult without some assistance and it is important for you and the patient and your entire family to get the help.

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