EP71: Alzheimer's Disease and Marriage

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That moment comes in the life of married couples when the other half may begin to experience memory issues. Typically, this will change the dynamics of the marriage itself because the person who's experiencing Alzheimer's or dementia will not function in the way they used to. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In this episode of This is Getting Old podcast, listen if you are struggling to handle a spouse or a senior loved one repeating themselves a lot, or maybe they're stuck on a specific story that they're telling. </span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Key points covered in this episode: <br /> <br /></span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">✔️ When the couple still retain their cognitive ability, and the other person can still get around, splinting allows assisting a person living with a memory problem by having the partner help and do things for them.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">✔️ Working through repetitive verbalization. If a spouse or someone is saying to you, "I want to go home", many times, rather than getting frustrated with them telling you the same thing repeatedly, respond with: "it seems to me that you're nervous or are you scared of something?" Asking them this question focuses on what they're truly feeling rather than what's being said. </span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">✔️ Address the underlying emotion. After you identify the cause beyond the intent, the best way to handle that is to help them work through the feeling so that you can hug them or comfort them and meet the underlying emotional need. </span></p> <p> </p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">If you have questions, comments or need help, please feel free to drop a one-minute audio or video clip and email it to me at melissabphd@gmail.com, and I will get back to you by recording an answer to your question. </span></em></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>About Melissa Batchelor, PhD, RN, FNP-BC, FGSA, FAAN:</strong></p> <p> </p>