Teepa Snow Discusses the Ten Early Signs of Dementia

This is your

early

warning sign and I'm not going to spend a lot of energy or time on this, but I just want to give you a hint if I'm really good at telling you, do you remember, when, when, remember that? Time when you were a little kid and you had and I'm telling you these old stories over and over again and yet when you try to get me to latch on to new information, I can't do it, get nervous because I shouldn't. I have more trouble holding on to important new information and I can access that old stuff and when you start seeing it fairly regularly, a pattern appears not just once or twice, but a pattern that you have to look for as well.

Having difficulty doing difficult but familiar things like paying your taxes instead of putting them in a drawer somewhere, finding a financial advisor and then telling him to do things I would never have told him to do and then claiming that I didn't tell him to do that, taking money and moving it around and it's like what are you doing right? I needed to move it by trusting people. I'm not the type of people. I would ever send money to a PO box in Oklahoma if it weren't my habit to take all my money out of the bank and keep it at home by inviting people I don't know over to the house to come and fix something.

We also want to look at problems not just with memory because that's not what it's about, we also want to look at problems where you can. I can't think of you know what you say one after the other in a row and there's a period at the end you know it doesn't make sense uh yeah words what do you think I meant? you have that attitude now this woman gave me the answer why am I being ugly to her because I felt stupid because I should have known what it was and I didn't like it not thinking about it let me give you another example not everyone gets angry let me show you another example of the same kind of things, although you know they are one after another and you put them in one thing and there is a period at the end oh my God, no, it's not good, now it wasn't bad before, but now I'm going to get angry because because she He said it was okay that it was stupid oh that's what you meant to do right that's what you did right you're sorry for this whole situation I'm sorry well you're going to move on to hell too that'll be fine now this is where it feels and I'm going To be honest with you, sometimes as a care partner, I feel like no matter what you do, you're not right, it's because this disease makes it that way.

It's hard for me because I think I should know something when I don't know something, you give it to me like that, it shows me that I don't know something that I know, I should be a PhD, my God, I should be able to. Thinking about what it's called now if this just happens when you're exhausted when you haven't slept at all when you're really really worried and it only happens from time to time, look, this is the hard part because everyone in this room is going to say Palantine in one breath. line and I don't think that I mean everyone is afraid of

dementia

because of the way they did this study with older adults and that used to be one of the things that you I'm really afraid to guess what cancer used to be, guess what it is now

dementia

, yes people are much more scared about this than ever before because the numbers are going up and people realize how scary it is so what's going on?

We start to see some changes in us, we're trying to dismiss it, so one of the most common things is someone says something like I'm a little worried, I can't, I can't seem to find the things I want to say, sometimes you know the ones. things you want to say to people now notice how I use vague terms to describe what you know the battles that go one after another the battles the fattest fatties fat you speak good English now these are all kinds of behaviors that, as you watch them, you think about what's going on here and yet at other times I'm perfectly fine.

I could think of words and they're not real words called word salad, on the other hand I could just speak vaguely, on the other hand I could stop talking, it's very easy for us to think that we have, you know, all people do that, no , no, and you want to think about me, who I am, what I've done and if it's not consistent. with me you do not lose your speaking skills with normal aging you are a little more who you have been but it does not change dramatically your verbal linguistics remains the same you are a little slower but still the same you have the The same vocabulary actually has more vocabulary than ever before, but It takes you longer to find the words, so if people rush you, you'll still listen to someone who ages normally.

Could you slow down for just a minute? I'm going to tell you that it's normal. between generations it is also very normal for the husband's wives to fight about this because I will start, you know, I was going to tell you that yesterday so-and-so came, yes, and she stopped and said she was going to fix it. Can I tell the story or do you go and tell it? This is where you sometimes have to determine what is normal interactive behavior between people and what feels different, but after you've been at it for a while, you'll start to understand it. in it, if you are listening and paying attention, another is getting confused about the place or the time, then this is getting lost driving business, this is getting on the interstate and turning around and not being able to think about what controls I am looking for it can also be get lost in my life for a moment, so one moment I'm looking for the house I grew up in, not the current house, and now I get to a place and it's like God, how did I get here? because I don't remember the process because I can't hold on to new things and suddenly I don't know why I got here, how I got here, someone brought me here and left me here and I think you're alone, oh my God, who is this?

And I could look at someone that I've known very closely for years and at that moment, who are you, who are you, by the way, and you're my wife, you're my husband because at that moment I'm thinking I'm 22 at that moment. moment and I'm looking for the person in the wedding photo and then what happens is I look at you and you scare me because it's like oh my God, who what are you doing? my house who are you especially at night and my daughter is there and it's like who are you what are you doing here mom you know who I am not me either who are you I am your daughter I don't have a girl I have a little girl but nothing is old you and you focus on my anguish, but what you don't realize is how terrifying this is for me.

I mean, this actually gets really scary because at that moment I'm lost and So when I say, when my grandfather said where is grandma, he at that moment really believed that he was in a place in his life, it taught him that he would have It made sense that she was there and when my mom said, well, I can't push dad. He would grieve the loss again and yet he couldn't hold on to that loss, so that's not the right answer, that's called reality orientation, we don't do that anymore, it's something old that we give up, it's not good for the people we are. sitting judgment these are things people are making bad decisions solving problems these are people you can go all the way now that's why I don't think it's good oh I hear you so this is where I think we should do oh okay, So why are you taking my car key?

We talked about this well, I never agreed on that, okay, I didn't. The combination of memory problems and reasoning skills problems will wear you down. Wow, if you really think it's going to stay because you get frustrated because you said we talked about this you remember the talk I don't have to give up the idea that I hold on to things all the time because I can't and then when I say well this is the first I've heard about your knee-jerk reaction, your automatic response, which is not the first time we've talked about this, you have to stop doing it, stop again now, in fact I want you to practice, that's an important skill that I want you to learn. practice. stop, I want you to breathe pursing your lips and blowing now, this time I want you to focus on abdominal breathing, okay, in other words, abdominal breathing, we'll get to this and tell you why it's important, this is okay, ready, breathe your nose blow one more time inhale, blow now the reason I had to do that that's a new skill for you it's called breathing most of you think you know how to do this but when you're a caregiver this is what When this starts to happen happen, you start to get stressed out caregiving and before you know it, before long, you're not actually exhaling, you're sucking on your ear and you're holding on to it and you're only using the top third of your lungs because you're having trouble there. problems every time I go here there are problems and I don't have time, what am I going to have time to do something for myself?

I'm stressed let me tell you something that I can't explain and what you don't realize is that you're not breathing, you're taking in air but you never let it go and letting it go is an incredibly important skill in both how you handle things and just breathing. , so they took We did a study, they did a study of people who take care of people with dementia and they looked at them and compared them to people who don't take care of people with dementia and guess what these people discovered, oh, that's a sign, it means It's been almost 45 minutes, okay, let me check, have you learned anything yet about dementia that you didn't know?

Some of you, yes, some of you no, how about some new skills? Well, you're learning one, right? now and you're having fun good, good, good, so come on, we'll see what we can do with the rest of this period of time. Okay, so they did this study and what they did was they compared people to people with dementia who are caregivers to people with dementia to people who are not dementia and what they found is that people who are caregivers to people with dementia had negative cortisol levels of the stress hormone which is 50% higher than the normal person now cortisol is a negative stress hormone it is not good to have in your system for long periods of time it is really good to have if you are being chased by a tiger , you want to get away from it very quickly, but if you're not doing that, you really don't want to have it. high levels of cortisol because high levels of cortisol in Risa's fat distribution in your organs and around your waist makes it very difficult for you to see the big picture, it actually makes your vision become like this, it prevents your brain works really well in making decisions.

When doing tasks, you can't make good decisions when your cortisol level is because it's a panic, you have to do something, you have to do something, you have to move, you are not able to see the big picture and make good decisions. options based on the information available because you can't handle all that, it also increases your blood pressure, your heart rate, your blood sugar, so people who care for people with dementia are more at risk of developing dementia. Oh yeah, that's not good. You don't need more people with dementia, there are a lot of them, so this is what we want to do: they did a study and said: "Okay, you are very stressed, guess what the caregivers said, oh well, something else, I don't "I'm doing good, very good, what am I supposed to do?" What to do about it I don't have time to do what I have to do how am I supposed to deal with stress?

On top of that, they said okay, well, we have to make this simple, let them breathe, so they actually did it. They stopped five times a day and took three deep cleansing breaths and actually gave them a kitchen timer to put on their belt because, guess what happens to self-care if you don't give them a timer so they remember to take care of themselves? themselves, they won. Don't you take care of yourselves? They say, Oh yeah, I'll get to that at some point, but they don't, so five times a day they would stop and do those three deep cleansing breaths and after six months they re-engage.

His cortisol level returned to normal, what does that mean for you as a caregiver? You carry an incredible load and you don't even realize that you are not even breathing properly. You're getting into situations. I'll tell you how. You enter the house hairy person hey dad, how are we today? You'll be ready to take a shower, okay, let's not find daddy unless you're dirty, this is going to turn out great, I can tell you, just don't go there, but this is where, but notice what I wasn't doing. , I'm not breathing and unfortunately, guess who picks up his signals from me, dad, and now dad is getting more and more tense and more and more upset, what do you want?

Do it and before you know it you two will be at it again without even realizing how you got there. Okay, we have to change our behavior for their behavior to change, but it will only happen if we are the ones who change first. I have to be willing to make that change, so breathing regularly is very important, so when you can't think of anything else to do, take a step back and you won't want to take a shower. I heard you, it's a much safer response, it's a response, not a reaction you're actually thinking about what you're going to do you're taking that moment to collect yourself before you try to help someone else you know what they say about that oxygen mask What is the same when it comes to caring?

I have to go from caring to a partnercareful, so that means you must think now we can go over the rest of these, but I don't want to waste too much time. I want to point out a couple more things here, although the loss of initiation is probably one of the most missed. The loss of initiation means that I am not doing things as before. I'll talk about it, but I don't, so let's go. Let's say I used to be very active in my faith community. I used to lead a group of adults and we studied and now I told them, well, I'm not going to do that anymore, I've given them a lot of time. of my life and I let someone else step forward, I let someone else do these kinds of things.

I'm just not going to do it or I'm not going to go to churches on Sunday or I'm not going to go to temple this Sunday. I'll go I'll do it another time I'll do it another time I'm going to I'm going to clean that I'm going to clean all that I'm going to go into that room and pick it up everything is resolved and nothing is done, it could be depression, but it could not be depression, it could be be the first

signs

of dementia because one of the things your brain can't do is figure out how to go from a thought to a reality. doing it and like that they get stuck and like that you come home and it's like mom you didn't even eat the sandwich I left you okay I just wasn't hungry it wasn't about being hungry it's about not being able to start not being able to understand it not being able to know what to do first what do the sequence later this is where you walk in and see the bedroom and say oh, what did you do right?

I was going to put everything is out, everything is out. I know I was tidying it up, you weren't, so you're just frustrated because every time you turn around I break things in my effort to be useful, but I don't see that I mean, I'm trying to do it but I can't figure it out. I start looking at all the stacks and then I get a little nervous and don't know what to do. I don't know if I'll make it. just leave it leave it don't mess with it I'm going to come back but I can't do it