I chose to blog about Chapter 5 because mental health plays a huge role on my mom's side. My grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's when I was about 11 or 12 and I watched it progressed and her go through her stages until she had passed away recently. It was one of the most heart breaking things I ever had to go through and watch.
The chapter starts out covering the psychology of aging which is a broad field covering cognition and its many aspects such as perception, information processing, and learning and memory and then the sychological and spiritual development. It then covers funcional disorders. One is anxiety disorders such as generlized anxiety disorder, obessive-compulsive disorder, and phobia. The other functionality disorders it covers is depressive disorders, personality disorders, affective disorders, and schizophrenia.
The next part of the chapter is what I was most interested in. It was the organic mental disorders which "arise from a physical origin that impairs mental functioning" (Hiller & Barrow, 2011, p. 140). Reading about the symptoms of dementia, and Alzheimer's being a type of dementia, they were so similar to what we saw in my MawMaw when she started developing it. These symptoms include memory loss, difficulty performing familiar tasks problems with language, time and place disorientation, poor judgement, problems with abstract thinking, misplacing things, changes in mood, personality changes, and loss of initiative (Hiller & Barrow, 2011, p. 141). My MawMaw experienced most of these. It started out forgetting where she was. She got lost driving home one day. We decided to take her to the doctor when she was on a trip with her friends and she forgot where they were sitting after getting her food at a restaurant. As the disease progressed, towards the end, she was not able to talk, she could only have pureed food, no whole food, and she could not walk. According the Hiller and Barrow (2011), Alzheimer's is "the most common form of chronic organic brain disease, accounting for 70 percent of all such diseases..." (p.141) and "a prevention or cure for Alzheimer's disease is yet to be found..." (p. 143).
Also according to Hiller and Barrow (2011), and the AARP (2007), 2007 final test results were released for a new generations to address the underlying causes of Alzheimer's disease. Quoting the Chief of the Dementias of Aging Branch at the National Institute on Aging, "We've gone from drugs that help for a time with the symptoms of Alzheimer's to trying to develop drugs that will actually slow down or reverse the disease itself." (quoted in AARP, 2007). So although there is no cure yet medicines and technologies are making their way further and futher into the cure for mental disorders.
Hillier, S., & Barrow, G. (2011). Aging, the individual, and society. (9th ed., pp. 3-28). California: WADSWORTH.
I personally do not have any family that has had Alzheimer's disease so I would not know first hand how it feels to have someone close with that. I have only seen videos of Alzheimer's disease, but other than that nothing. I could only imagine what you went through, I know if my grandmother had Alzheimer's disease and eventuallly stopped recognizing me, it would hurt.This is probably one of the most dreaded diseases people want to experience. If there is a cure found or even something that could slow it down like you said, I believe that all of us as a whole would be progressing and living better lives.
ReplyDeleteCara, like Flor I do not have any family members or friends that have Alzheimer’s disease. I am sorry to hear about the loss of your grandmother. I was unaware that Alzheimer’s was a type of dementia and my Mawmaw was recently diagnosed with dementia. The symptoms of my Mawmaw included memory loss, time and place disorientation and misplacing things. The main problem for my Mawmaw is memory loss. We can be riding in a car with her and she can tell us the same story over and over again and not even realize that she has told the story. It’s not just one story or thing it’s everything she tells us, she repeats. At the moment, I think she is taking some medicine to help with her memory, but like you mentioned there is no cure for this mental disorder right now. I was also unaware that Alzheimer’s is “the most common form of chronic organic brain disease, accounting for 70 percent of all such diseases” (p. 141). Hopefully, doctors and other medical specialist will find a cure for these organic mental disorders soon.
ReplyDeleteThis chapter was also very interesting to me as well. Although I have not had a personal experience such as you with someone in my family having Alzheimer disease, my mother has had several friends over the years who have suffered from it. Her neighbor and close friend recently passed away due to complications connected to having Alzheimer’s. From what you described going through with your MawMaw, is very similar to my mother’s neighbor. Her memory loss progressed very rapidly and she eventually forgot how to do simple daily tasks such has bathing or dressing herself. She could not eat sold food as well and eventually lost her ability to speak or communicate with anyone. I can imagine how difficult it can be for anyone who is affected by this disease. Hopefully as stated in your blog, there will soon be medication that will not only help with the symptoms of the disease but will advance in technology and medicine that will slow down or reverse the disease.
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