First of all, I am a new member to this forum, but I am finding the information here invaluable, thank you.
My 62 year old mother is currently going through the long (and seemingly never ending) process of diagnosis and medication. We are undergoing hit and miss trials of anti-depressants and have a long awaited consultation for a prescription of Aricept next week - keep your fingers crossed. However, we are relatively new to all this and her condition seems to have crept up on us over the last year or so. Whilst she seems quite happy to do things for herself most of the time, although she gets easily confused by getting dressed, bringing in 3 and a half pairs of shoes when she only wanted one pair, putting teabag and coffee in the same mug, there is no way she can be left alone so my father, sister and I are doing our best to support her. My father retired this year and has been devasted by the realisation of my mother's deterioration (which i think had been hidden from him slightly whilst he was at work and my sister and I were doing much of the everyday things with her - we don't live with them but our jobs allow us time to get over during the day and evenings). One of the more concerning problems we seem to come across is this. There seems to be a time when my mum's mind just switches off. She can help us cook dinner, happily putting all knives (no forks) out on the table, eat her dinner quite happily chatting away - we are learning to translate her conversation now - when a little thing spilt dinner on her jumper will cause her to burst into tears and start making up stories about the council evicting her from her home, my father beating her up (he wouldn't dream of touching her) or something else like that.
But a further, much more scarey thing, that is happening is that she has started walking out of the house when our backs are turned and "visiting the neighbours" as they are only ones she can talk to! This has meant combing the local area for her (I live 3 miles away), having a neighbour come round and say she has arrived on their front door claiming she is being beaten up by my father or just not making sense when she does speak to them. However, when we bring her back and question her about why she walked out - she will deny she has gone, claim all sort of outslandish reasons as to why she went, cry hysterically and then if we manage to divert her attention, all is right with the world again. The next day she will deny that any of this has happened of course.
I am trying to get my dad to complete a diary of her day to day activities as I think I am starting to see a pattern emerging in her behaviour - this malfunction seems to happen at about the same time of night. But he is in denial and this is all too much for him to cope with.
I am worried that perhaps she is getting bored. It is often too late to go for a walk, the weather is too bad, she finds it hard to concentrate on the tv or a book (she can read, but cannot explain what she is reading). I think she is like a pressure valve that needs a release.
Has anyone got any ideas of something I can give to someone with her condition that does not require any great concentration?
My 62 year old mother is currently going through the long (and seemingly never ending) process of diagnosis and medication. We are undergoing hit and miss trials of anti-depressants and have a long awaited consultation for a prescription of Aricept next week - keep your fingers crossed. However, we are relatively new to all this and her condition seems to have crept up on us over the last year or so. Whilst she seems quite happy to do things for herself most of the time, although she gets easily confused by getting dressed, bringing in 3 and a half pairs of shoes when she only wanted one pair, putting teabag and coffee in the same mug, there is no way she can be left alone so my father, sister and I are doing our best to support her. My father retired this year and has been devasted by the realisation of my mother's deterioration (which i think had been hidden from him slightly whilst he was at work and my sister and I were doing much of the everyday things with her - we don't live with them but our jobs allow us time to get over during the day and evenings). One of the more concerning problems we seem to come across is this. There seems to be a time when my mum's mind just switches off. She can help us cook dinner, happily putting all knives (no forks) out on the table, eat her dinner quite happily chatting away - we are learning to translate her conversation now - when a little thing spilt dinner on her jumper will cause her to burst into tears and start making up stories about the council evicting her from her home, my father beating her up (he wouldn't dream of touching her) or something else like that.
But a further, much more scarey thing, that is happening is that she has started walking out of the house when our backs are turned and "visiting the neighbours" as they are only ones she can talk to! This has meant combing the local area for her (I live 3 miles away), having a neighbour come round and say she has arrived on their front door claiming she is being beaten up by my father or just not making sense when she does speak to them. However, when we bring her back and question her about why she walked out - she will deny she has gone, claim all sort of outslandish reasons as to why she went, cry hysterically and then if we manage to divert her attention, all is right with the world again. The next day she will deny that any of this has happened of course.
I am trying to get my dad to complete a diary of her day to day activities as I think I am starting to see a pattern emerging in her behaviour - this malfunction seems to happen at about the same time of night. But he is in denial and this is all too much for him to cope with.
I am worried that perhaps she is getting bored. It is often too late to go for a walk, the weather is too bad, she finds it hard to concentrate on the tv or a book (she can read, but cannot explain what she is reading). I think she is like a pressure valve that needs a release.
Has anyone got any ideas of something I can give to someone with her condition that does not require any great concentration?