My mom got diagnosed with early onset alzheimer’s back in 2009 when she was in her early 40s and she lost her mind a couple months after, but she still lives to this day only it’s not her anymore if that makes sense. I hear lots of people say they lost their loved ones to alzheimer’s and it kills me that my mom can’t get the same fate because (I’m gonna get alot of hate for this) death is far more humane than what she’s going through at the moment.
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You don’t deserve any hate for that statement, I have dealt with dementia in my own family and I have worked in dementia care my whole adult life. You are not the only person who feels death is more humane than the suffering people and their families go through.
Dementia’s slowly kill off and shut down parts of the brain, sometimes this can be because other things are growing in the brain such as plaque or parts of the brain become tangled, which is the case in Alzheimer’s.
As these parts die and cause brain damage, you notice certain symptoms, starting with memory loss, moving onto confusion and mood and behaviour changes, eventually this can lead to areas such as speech and motor skills. Some people with Alzheimer’s go on to have swallowing difficulties because the part of the brain responsible for eating and swallowing is damaged (which is why some need pureed foods and thickened fluids).
While I’m not a doctor, from what I have noticed throughout my work, deaths are often caused by several things. Most commonly people stop eating, drinking and swallowing all together and doctors and families find it kinder to let their loved one pass rather than insert feeding tubes. Secondly people’s bodies begin to shut down, usually either the heart or lungs. Thirdly there may be something else as the cause, such as a stroke, seizure, severe infection, etc.
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