According to the Spanish Society of Neurology, some 800,000 people in Spain suffer from Alzheimer’s, a terrible degenerative disease, a type of dementia characterized by impaired memory, as well as other changes that affect their psychology, social relationships and their own behavior.
As the disease progresses, the patient may forget mundane tasks such as language itself, the ability to recognize objects and use them, and, in more advanced stages, forget how to regulate secretions and expel mucus, as well as eat and chew or walk.
Therefore, we can affirm that there are memories that last much longer than others as Alzheimer’s disease progresses. The Spanish Alzheimer’s Federation ensures that affective memory is the last one lost by a patient with this type of dementia.
That is why in order to deal with a person with Alzheimer’s it is very important to carry out actions that strengthen affective ties. For example, playing music that they listened to when they were younger, talking to them about the things they liked the most, stories that they always tell with a smile on their lips… In short, we must always try to make the person affected remember the happy moment, that space of time in which they feel safe and try to extend it as long as we can while we are with her.
It is vital to differentiate Alzheimer’s from what is pure forgetfulness. Some of the main symptoms of Alzheimer’s onset are:
Just as depression has nothing to do with having a bad day, Alzheimer’s is a very serious illness that has nothing to do with momentarily forgetting why we went to the kitchen or forgetting what we ate the day before. However, if you detect any worrying symptoms, go to the specialist doctor and tell him how you are.
