My mum is re reading letters over and over, she’s also thinking she is somewhere else, quite a bit. how do you guys deal with this. I have anxiety and depression myself so it’s very hard to not get frustrated and anxious,my dad has problems with getting frustrated too. We are waiting for the doctor to see her on Tuesday She also has an appointment on Thursday that will need a taxi ride.
Re reading everything
- Thread starter Calliope74
- Start date
Hello @Calliope74 caring for someone with dementia is hard at the best of times but as you and your dad are both getting frustrated I wonder if the link below might help you both? It contains advice from Teepa Snow about how to deal with the frustrations that being a carer bring brings, and the need to accept the things that you can't change, which is very good advice. Other members here have frequently recommended Teepa Snow, and you can find lots of her videos on youtube so watching some of these if you can might help you and your dad with coping strategies. I'm sure others will be along soon with some other useful advice/tips, and keep posting as there is support available here when you are struggling.
www.agingcare.com
Dementia Caregiving Tips from Teepa Snow
Five dementia caregiving tips from Teepa Snow, acclaimed dementia care authority and occupational therapist known as “the horse whisperer of dementia.”
www.agingcare.com
My husband would re read the newspaper over and over again. Conversion would start off ‘ have you read the paper?’ my reply would be no. So he would read out every little bit aloud to me from front page to the sports on the back page. Then it was back to the front page and we went through the whole paper, he had no memory of what he had read, it was as if he had just picked the paper up for the first time. Admittedly second, third, fourth time he chose different bits to read out aloud to me. Didn’t matter how many times he asked me had I read it and I was now saying yes, cover to cover, he continued. It did grate, but sticking to the recommendations of compassionate communications, very similar to Teepa Snow’s ideas I managed. Now the memory of those times makes me smile.
Hi Reading letters over and over again is a relatively innocent activity and probably doesn't cause her any problems or discomfort. Is it not possible to just leave her to it? Sorry if I'm missing something here .
Susan
Hi @Calliope, if the letters are important or are causing her distress I'd put them somewhere safe where your mum can't see them. I didn't live with my mother but sometimes when I visited she'd obviously been worried about something and turned all her files upside down looking for something fairly minor. She also got worried by letters from doctors as she didn't always understand what was said and feared the worse.
If things are really annoying you maybe walk away if you can. Tricky if you think your mum isn't safe being left or her own or she is likely to follow you.
If things are really annoying you maybe walk away if you can. Tricky if you think your mum isn't safe being left or her own or she is likely to follow you.
