“Decisions on what we have to eat, what to wear and where to go are taken away from us”
– by Tommy Dunne
“While a person with dementia awareness will slowly fade with the progress of the disease, it is often overlooked that the person with dementia will live for a long time. We can still experience the emotions that we’ve always had. We find meaning in the present, the future and the past. I woefully accept that dementia irrevocably will change me, I am still here, as well as all my peers. Sometimes our dementia is seen as a way to demote the most basic things – our loved ones overcompensate and don’t allow us do anything or make any decisions.
So often during the day we are told, why don’t you put on your pyjamas and relax. Don’t you know that when we put on our pyjamas that’s another day over for us. Decisions on what we have to eat, what to wear and where to go are taken away from us as soon as you’re given a diagnosis of dementia. Families assume that you can no longer do anything for yourself. People with dementia start to rebel about having control of their life being taken away and people trying to institutionalise us. They expect us to eat at times that we are not even hungry, and to go to sleep when we are not tired. This behaviour is often a person with dementia trying to communicate our fear and discomfort. And can you imagine the frustration of being told to sit down in your chair all the time? When all you just want to do is to walk around and maybe get some fresh air.”
