If your loved one with dementia appears depressed, please read on.
If you feel frustrated because your loved one with dementia was once industrious and now seems lazy, please read on.
If your loved one seems apathetic, and you just do not understand why they will not get up out of their chair, read on.
I have observed that some people with dementia appear to be like the Law of Inertia, Newton’s First Law of Physics.
The Law of Inertia says in part that “a body at rest remains at rest unless acted upon by an outside force.” While Newton is applying this principle to non-living objects, I have watched with fascination as it applies to dementia.
Let me explain. I learned from The DAWN Method about the three primary cognitive skills that are lost in dementia: memory skills, rational thinking skills, and attention skills.
What this means is that a person with dementia progressively forgets what it was they once used to get up out of a chair and do, a symptom of loss of memory skills. So, they sit.
If they happen to remember (usually they see something that attracts their attention versus remembering…a facet of dementia we will discuss later) something they used to get up out of their chair and do, they are increasingly losing the rational thinking skills that would allow them to complete the task. One primary rational thinking skill is sequencing, so if someone with dementia is losing the ability to sequence, they will increasingly struggle to go through the steps of logging in to their email, like they so easily used to do. Therefore, they sit, because they will be unsuccessful and unable to complete what it was they got up to do, and they may well become frustrated (we will discuss later how we help folks with dementia become less frustrated after failing at a task).
And if they think of something to do and get up and start to go through the steps of a task, they will increasingly be losing the attention skills that will help them maintain, direct, and redirect their attention to the task at hand, which means they will increasingly become distracted and will struggle to redirect their attention back to the task. So, another failure at a once simple task. Therefore, they sit.
People with dementia regularly get mislabeled as depressed, lazy, or apathetic, when the problem is likely that they are losing the skills to remember what it was they used to get up and do, losing the skills to sequence through the steps of what it was they once used to do, or keep their attention on the task they once used to easily do, so they often end up with task failure.
But thank goodness, we are not helpless in this situation. The tools of the DAWN Method are the “outside force that acts on a body to get it moving.” The tools of The DAWN Method show us how to reduce the amount of time someone spends sitting in a chair. We learn that we are the ones with the privilege of bringing richness and beauty and experiences that matter into the lives of our loved ones with dementia, even as their ability to do for themselves declines.
The Law of Inertia….it’s a common state of affairs in dementia….unless we learn The DAWN Method and learn a better way.
Not sure where to start? Go here: DAWN Dementia Roadmap to read through the eleven steps of the Dementia Roadmap, and begin to see a better way of helping folks with dementia live good lives.
Privileged to know and share,
Jill
