I don’t know if this will be answered as all these threads are a few years old but here goes. My 88 year old mother has vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s. She recently became worried about the batteries in her tv remote but couldn’t explain why. Over the past two days she hasn’t wanted the tv on and insists it’s switched off when our visit to her is over. She lives on her own, has carers but won’t move out and live with family. Most of the comments on this thread discuss the fear sufferers have of tv programmes as they can’t differentiate between eg Soaps and reality. Did any of the sufferers begin their fear by having an actual fear of the tv remote or the tv itself? I hope this makes sense as I’m trying to gauge if this is a worsening of the illness? Thanks.
Confused and frightened by the television remote control
- Thread starter Moose59
- Start date
Welcome to TP, @Moose59. I've not seen this problem myself and hopefully someone will come along who has. For what it is worth my H has Vascular dementia and she has had a gradual problem following tv and knowing the difference between the programme and the adverts. She will watch DVDs of music and listen to some CDs, is that any help ? https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/about...tia-progresses/progression-alzheimers-disease may explain the progression, but everyone is different.
Not exactly a fear of the remote itself, but my husband did stop using the remote once he'd forgotten how to use it properly The closest he came to any kind of fear was when he kept pressing the volume button continuously when he was trying to change channels. The result was an extremely high volume which put him in a panic and he was greatly relieved that I was there to sort it out.
Maybe, if I hadn't been around, he might have developed a fear of the remote, but as it was he just gradually left the remote alone and I would do the channel changing and switch off the tv afterwards.
I don't think he would have been able to turn off the tv himself, so again, had I not been around to do it, maybe he would have avoided having the tv on in the first place.
I know that others have mentioned in the past that their loved one has been reluctant to go to bed because they have 'visitors who won't go home' which is in fact just the tv they've either forgotten how to switch off - or feel it would be rude of them to do so.
hi @Moose59
welcome from me too
it just occurred to me that in times past batteries weren't so reliable and could leak, I wonder whether your mother is thinking of this
and TV remotes are relatively new, and fiddly, so she may be having trouble knowing what to do with it, so can't turn off the TV herself
I know my dad used to insist on the TV being switched off at the mains - he had it in his mind that it might 'blow up' overnight, and the very early sets were liable to do this (standby mode didn't exist then)
or, of course, the remote handset may have become for her the focus of the general anxiety that dementia can bring
unfortunately modern sets don't have easily usable controls on the TV itself - might she accept a timer switch that is set to turn the TV off when it's her bedtime, if she will understand this
welcome from me too
it just occurred to me that in times past batteries weren't so reliable and could leak, I wonder whether your mother is thinking of this
and TV remotes are relatively new, and fiddly, so she may be having trouble knowing what to do with it, so can't turn off the TV herself
I know my dad used to insist on the TV being switched off at the mains - he had it in his mind that it might 'blow up' overnight, and the very early sets were liable to do this (standby mode didn't exist then)
or, of course, the remote handset may have become for her the focus of the general anxiety that dementia can bring
unfortunately modern sets don't have easily usable controls on the TV itself - might she accept a timer switch that is set to turn the TV off when it's her bedtime, if she will understand this
