“Twitter is therapy for me: it frees my mind and I can express my feelings in the written word without getting emotional”
– by Tommy Dunne
“I’d like to say a few words about social media, and raising awareness about dementia. As you know there are two social media in particular, Facebook and Twitter. And while I don’t do Facebook my wife Joyce does and it gives her the chance to express her feelings, and the ups and downs of caring for a person with dementia. I can tell you from firsthand experience that you need to have the patience of a saint to deal with the needs, the emotions and the moods of a person with dementia. It is therefore vital that she has a place where she can let off steam, while at the same time explain to people that it is the disease that makes us do strange things or say hurtful things to the very people we should be giving all our love to. I want to raise the fact that no one is caring for the family carers. When they go down we are in big trouble. They are under tremendous stress 24/7. I can sometimes forget that I have dementia, but my wife cannot have that luxury.
I was asked why I write on Twitter. I write to try to raise awareness of dementia, to help defeat the stigma. I want people to try and understand that we have no lost our intelligence. People with dementia can and do contribute to society. We know that we can’t do all the things that we used to do without assistance nowadays. But we still have our pride and dignity. All we want to do is go into a shop and to know that there is help there if we ask for. And we want to know that if we have to have help that the person giving it will have an awareness of dementia.
Writing is therapy for me. It frees my mind. I can express my feelings in the written word without getting emotional. But the best thing about writing on Twitter is that I can take my time doing it and I can do it in 140 characters or less. Where if I used Facebook I’d have to do chapter and verse and it cuts out any bull that goes with it.”
