“I may have dementia, but dementia does not have me”

– by Chris Norris 

“So, what does the phrase ‘living with dementia’ really mean, and how can this be achieved? Well, having thought about it and looked around, I’ve found that it comes in ‘can’s’. I try to keep constantly in my thoughts what I can do, and not what I can’t do anymore. Life is like riding a bicycle. All the time you’re pushing onwards, and things are fine and okay. When you stop, that’s when things fall out of balance and become difficult to control.

I watched a program recently, where they proved that it was possible to walk across custard. Due to the chemical makeup of the liquid, the harder you apply impact to its surface, the firmer it becomes. And as long as you keep on moving, you don’t sink into the mire. Dementia is like that. As long as you don’t stop, it has less chance to drag you down.

I’ve found the best way to deal with dementia is to fight back. Keep yourself as busy as possible, and get on with life with as much positivity that can be possibly mustered.

In a spirit of living with dementia, I’ve recently taken part in hover craft driving day, a segway safari date, and a tank driving day. On the latter, I got to drive four different armed vehicles, including a Chieftain tank, and a session on a quad bike. Now it was fun to see the instructor faces when I declared to them that I had dementia. I have to say, they watched my every action really carefully. I’ve also taken a helicopter ride around London. The aviation authorities were pleased to know that I was not piloting the helicopter.

Now, it’s my belief that when life throws challenges at us, we should face them head-on and fight back. I have adopted a daily mantra of ‘I may have dementia, but dementia does not have me’. In the famous words of Winston Churchill: never, never, never give up.”

For more of Chris’ diaries, click here.