Not really, but can you try and get happy films, travel shows on? Of course easier if you are an Live in carer. I feel the emotions programmes produce can have an effect. Others may have better ideas. The news can be very disturbing!my mother has started to think people on tv are talking to her personally
Anyone experience this ?and any idea or treatment
Regards
my mother has started to think people on tv are talking to her personally
Anyone experience this ?and any idea or treatment
Regards
Hi Fiona FHi, yes my 90yr old mum has recently started talking to the tv, responding to what they are saying, & keeps asking what these people do for food & where do they go at night? It's impossible to reason with her - all logic & reasoning went out the window long ago! She just can't understand that these people aren't really in the room.
When I phone to check if she's ok, she says, yes the "nurse" (carer) has just gone & "everybody's here". I ask who's there - she says "well, you know, everyone in the other room". This morning she rang me at 7.15am …. groan! I was having a lovely sleep too! She said she'd just got up & she didn't know what to do about giving "the people" breakfast! I told her to switch the tv off & they'd go away & will have already had their breakfast anyway. What can you do!
I see my mum every day as she lives nearby, & she has carers twice a day. When I go round she tells me to "shhhhhh, in case the people in the other room hear us". She said she wants to polish the table but "it's very difficult with these people being here, I don't want them to think I'm being rude when they're trying to talk to me" !!!
All I can do is keep turning off the tv if this becomes a problem, or try to find on old film or something - mind you she can't actually follow a programme or film anyway any more. She has local radio on in her bedroom 24/7 - maybe I should get another radio in the lounge? She wouldn't be able to work a CD player, but I can put it on for her.
I'd be interested to hear other's experiences of this & any good ideas to help - I can't be there constantly to keep an eye.
Hello @shalsam and welcome to Talking Point, this is an old thread and you are unlikely to receive any responses from previous posters.My mum also thinks the people on tv are sending her discreet messages, it's come to the point where she won't eat in her room as she says everyone is watching her. My mum moved in with me 6 months ago as we felt she could no longer live safely on her own. I never realised how hard it can be looking after someone with alzheimers . The relentless repeating of the same questions everyday is one of the hardest things to cope with. I to sometimes question have I had enough patience with her ,I try really hard to go along with everything but someday I just think it's like living with a 3 year old.
HiJust come back from mum's feeling totally exasperated & very guilty after, I'm ashamed to admit it, what escalated into an argument about the TV. I wish I could stop myself, but it just gets to the point when I'm at my wits end! I put on a programme about Ronnie Barker for her thinking she'd like that, with funny clips from his comedy programmes & clips of the Two Ronnies, which I think she remembers. But when I was talking to her she kept telling me to listen because the people were trying to tell us something. I said they can't see or hear us, many of the actors were dead & it was just a recording. We went over & over & over it, & when I tapped the screen saying "look it's just moving pictures on a screen", she said the lady on screen at the time flinched!! I said no she didn't, she was just recounting stories of working with Ronnie Barker, she can't see or hear us. Mum said she'd been brought up to be polite to people & she was embarrassed they heard us arguing. In the end I turned off the TV & she said the people would think she was being rude! I stupidly rise to the bait & say NO! they don't because they're not here in the first place! AAAAARRRGGHHHH! It's so frustrating. I know I should just play along & not get stressed out by it, but I can't seem to help myself after a while. I wish I could just play along more. I do try, & a lot of the time I do, but I get so frustrated. She doesn't know she's got Alzheimer's, & wouldn't remember (or have even registered) her initial diagnosis.
I stop short of telling her as I feel that would be very mean. Am I a bad daughter?