Coping With Difficult Behavior
People with Alzheimer’s disease or other types of dementia behave in ways that others find odd or difficult to handle. The person you are caring for is not being deliberately difficult. Due to memory loss they are unable to understand or make themselves understood. They are confused, frightened and frustrated. Caregivers often report that persons with dementia seem to be lost. They wander and pace through the house. They rummage through drawers and closets as if looking for something.
The key to coping with Alzheimer’s is to understand the relationship between your brain and your behavior. Once you understand this relationship, you can approach your diagnosis with compassion and courage. Consider these 10 tips your credo for living with Alzheimer’s disease.
The most important thing to remember when caring for someone with Alzheimer’s Disease is that they are not “trying” to make your life difficult. The patient has a disease which is ravaging his or her brain. The symptoms are beyond their control. They, too, are frustrated due to their inability to communicate their needs or to understand the confusion and fear they are experiencing.
Attend to your own physical and mental health. Make time for sleep, exercise, proper nutrition, socializing, and private time. If you are run down, exhausted, socially isolated, etc., you run the risk of becoming physically ill and overwhelmed and/or depressed yourself. You cannot help someone else without helping yourself first.
Stress Identification and Stress Response
Caregiving to someone with Alzheimer’s disease is unavoidable. People with Alzheimer’s disease become increasingly dependant on family members for their care as the disease progresses. It is important to be able to identify stress and stressors so that you can take steps that help you cope better.
What Are the Effects of Having a Long-term Illness?
People with Alzheimer’s disease often have to deal with fatigue and losing the ability to do many of the things that they’re used to doing themselves. Physical and mental changes from Alzheimer’s disease can affect your mood and appearance and can diminish your positive self-image and reduce your self-esteem.
Tips for Coping with Sexually Inappropriate Behavior
Use a kind instruction to stop the behavior. Humorous sentences can be good. Try not to sound demanding or angry as this generally has the opposite effect to the one you want. Some people do however require firmer instructions than others.
Try redirecting the person to another activity.
Try different approaches, and just because an approach did not work once, does not mean it will not work again.
Coping Strategies
Set realistic and attainable goals. Often, caregivers try to make everything all right and strive for unrealistic goals and end up exhausted and frustrated. Perhaps your goal is to be sure that your patient is clean, comfortable and well fed. But accepting success at 80 percent, for example, will allow you to enjoy time you might have otherwise spent fretting about not reaching your goals.
Anticipate misinterpretation by the individual with dementia. They are often no longer able to accurately interpret verbal or non-verbal cues which can result in anxiety and frustration in both the individual and the caregiver.
