idea9.jpg

Callout

Search


follow drbillthomas at http://twitter.com

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Category Archives

Monthly Archives

Subscribe to this blog's feed Subscribe to this blog's feed

ElderbloggersRule.gif

Announcements Retirement Living TV


Blog Data

Top Blogs

Add to Technorati Favorites

Politics blogs

Directories Blogs - Blog Catalog Blog Directory

Directory of Politics Blogs

Ageless Project

Bigger Blogger

Blog Directory

Blog Universe

« The Power of Community | Main | Chipmunk Economics »

September 23, 2008 |Permalink |Comments (6)

The Zen of Dementia

This just in from one of my favorite new blogs...


posted by pjwh

Dementia changes people and changes relationships, sometimes for the better. In the latest edition of Newsweek (September 22, 2008), author Sara Davidson shares her story about her relationship with her mother who became less demanding and more accepting of life as her cognitive impairment progressed, much to the surprise of the family. This is not the first time we’ve heard the story of a relationship improving with progressive cognitive impairment.

My friend Robert Green is quoted representing the standard view that experts are only interested in negative behaviors. Yet carers such as Ann Davidson, Elinor Fuchs and Judith Levine who have written books (and are in our book) about their experiences know that relationships change in complex ways, some very much for the good.

In Sarah’s piece I am described as a practicing Buddhist who wants the world’s religions to attend more to the challenges of dementia. Just as they provide perspectives on life and death so too they should attend to the challenges of cognitive aging.

I consider myself an amateur (note the root of that word is “love”) Buddhist, not a regular practitioner. I have studied and practiced meditative approaches, for example in Japan and at Naropa University in Colorado – a wonderful place where the spirit of learning is very much alive). Buddhism is both a science of mind and a spiritual practice that recognizes that false expectations and personal desires are at the root of suffering.

As quoted in Newsweek and from my own conversations with him, Oliver Sacks, too, believes that interesting parallels can be drawn between “being present” and emptying the mind in Buddhism and the mental state of dementia. I am not suggesting that enlightenment and dementia are the same, but rather that thinking deeply about their relationships may enlighten our attitudes about the cognitive challenges we all face as human beings who age. Just as fully embracing our mortality makes us appreciate life deeply, can reflecting profoundly on dementia help us recognize our own intellectual limitations as sentient creatures. Can we become more heart-full and wise as a result? Moreover in the daily struggles with cognitive impairment, meditation may be of practical benefit in helping people with dementia address issues of attention and anxiety. Open your own mind and heart to broader and deeper ways of thinking and perhaps your fears and suffering will be alleviated.

Comments ( 6)

I had a very interesting experience a few months ago at the nursing home where I work. I went into the room of a newly admitted resident whose bed alarm had been sounding off; alerting the staff that he may be getting up unassisted. When I walked in, I saw him sitting on his bed holding one of his socks which had slipped off his foot. He didn't even acknowledge my presence as he kept folding and unfolding the sock repetitively, fully concentrated on the task.

As I did not know him well at all, I tried to ask him a few questions to figure out what he was trying to do so I can help him. It quickly became evident that his dementia was quite advanced and he was not able to respond at all even to basic verbal communication. So I tried to gesture to him to let him allow me to put his sock back on. That didn't work either - he pushed my hand away and then he resumed his activity with the sock. I sat there next to him trying to figure out what to do. I tried a few other ways to engage him ("techniques" I have learned in my Dementia training) but nothing worked.

Since I was completely out of ideas, I just sat there, on his bed next to him and reached my hand out to his. He gave me the sock. He looked at me with, what I felt was, anticipation. I took the sock, folded it nicely and gave it back to him. He took it back, unfolded it and gave it back to me. Back and forth we went.

I don't know how long we did this but I can tell you it was a while. When he finally lost interest in this activity I felt like I had woken up from a trance. I realized, at that very moment, that I had experienced mindfulness in its true meaning.

A basic definition of “mindfulness” in psychotherapy is “awareness of the present experience with acceptance.” In Buddhist terms, it means undivided attention to the present moment without judgment. I am hesitant to speculate on how he felt but I know for sure, based on my own sensations, that I felt as though I had just finished a really, really good meditation session.

Psychologists talk about mindfulness as a tool to assist with coping with a myriad of symptoms, including pain, stress and other difficult emotional states.

Caregivers can also use mindfulness techniques when interacting with their residents (patients) to connect with the person and display empathy. As my experience showed me, sometimes this is the only way of relating and it feels just as good for the caregiver as it might for the person with dementia.

The alternative, which is to try to impose our world onto the person with dementia, really doesn't work. At best, it's futile. Most times, it causes terrible emotional pain, known in our professional world as "abnormal behaviors".

Posted by Dorothea Johnson
September 23, 2008 7:45 PM

I had a very interesting experience a few months ago at the nursing home where I work. I went into the room of a newly admitted resident whose bed alarm had been sounding off, alerting the staff that he may be getting up unassisted. When I walked in, I saw him sitting on his bed holding one of his socks which had slipped off his foot. He didn't even acknowledge my presence as he kept folding and unfolding the sock repetitively, fully concentrated on the task.

As I did not know him well at all, I tried to ask him a few questions to figure out what he was trying to do so I can help him. It quickly became evident that his dementia was quite advanced and he was not able to respond at all even to basic verbal communication. So I tried to gesture to him to let him allow me to put his sock back on. That didn't work either - he pushed my hand away and then he resumed his activity with the sock. I sat there next to him trying to figure out what to do. I tried a few other ways to engage him ("techniques" I have learned in my Dementia training) but nothing worked.

Since I was completely out of ideas, I just sat there, on his bed next to him and reached my hand out to his. He gave me the sock. He looked at me with, what I felt was, anticipation. I took the sock, folded it nicely and gave it back to him. He took it back, unfolded it and gave it back to me. Back and forth we went.

I don't know how long we did this but I can tell you it was a while. When he finally lost interest in this activity I felt like I had woken up from a trance. I realized, at that very moment, that I had experienced mindfulness in its true meaning.

A basic definition of “mindfulness” in psychotherapy is “awareness of the present experience with acceptance.” In Buddhism, it refers to undivided attention to the present moment without judgment.

I am hesitant to speculate on how he felt but I know for sure, based on my own sensations, that I felt as though I had just finished a really, really good meditation session.

Psychologists talk about mindfulness as a tool to assist with coping with a myriad of symptoms, including pain, stress and other difficult emotional states.

Caregivers can also use mindfulness techniques when interacting with their residents (patients) to connect with the person and display empathy. As my experience showed me, sometimes this is the only way of relating and it feels just as good for the caregiver as it might for the person with dementia.

The alternative, which is to try to impose our world onto the person with dementia, really doesn't work. At best, it's futile. Most times, it causes terrible emotional pain, known in our professional world as "abnormal behaviors".

Posted by Dorothea Johnson
September 23, 2008 7:47 PM

This reminds me of experiences with my father, who had dementia in later life. There were times that it was a kind of meditation just to sit with him, I felt honoured. My father never really liked my youngest son, he felt that I did not discipline him enough. But as his dementia progressed, he forgot his dislike for my son and started treating him like a loved grandson, to the great confusion of my son! So I agree that there can be an "upside" to dementia, you just have to keep an open mind to it.

Posted by Anne
September 24, 2008 12:38 PM

I have had the same experience as Sara Davidson with my mother who has early-moderate Alzheimers. She is more in her well-being than I have ever seen her in her life. She has become more philosophical with statements from "Oh well, there's nothing I can do about it, I'm just going to drop it" to "That's bothering me, let's change the subject." If you had told me I would hear such things from her mouth, I would have said, not possible, never! As a result of this disease my brother and sister and I have become closer, our mutual priority of rallying around my mother has given us siblings the opportunity to be with each other more often. I see in my sister and mother a motivated desire to finally reconcile their relationship. It's unspoken but it's there and it's happening.

The dementia literature doesn't reflect the complex and varied individual, family, and community experiences of Alzheimers. Instead, it perpetuates fear, decline, and the image that the person with the disease is "not there" and needs to be spoken for by others. That has not been my experience. My mother is still very much in there, and it is my job to listen in new ways to what she is saying, and hear her wisdom and her needs. I have never had Alzheimers; how much can I learn from her if I quiet my own mind and listen to what she can teach me as she is experiencing it herself?

thank you for the link to Al(t)zheimer's, absolutely brilliant. http://alt-alzheimers.com/

Posted by Cindy Cosenzo
September 24, 2008 9:31 PM

I currently work with a couple, one of whom has moderate to advanced dementia. I watch the non-dementia spouse struggle daily to make up for past grieveances in their relationship which he is reminded of daily. I admire his strength and loyality and I am heartened to think that he may yet experience the forgivness and achieve the relationship that he is working so hard to achieve.

Posted by Barbara Harry
September 26, 2008 1:36 PM

This is an important topic which we should all be talking and thinking about. Dementia is a reality that we are all seeing, and need to dialogue in regards to this disease. Check out the blog on www.seniorlivingresidences.com and click on the Alzheimer's blog section.

Posted by John Abrahams
September 27, 2008 9:22 AM

Post a comment




Remember me?

(You may use HTML tags for style)

©2007 Erickson School