Alzheimers Quotes

“Affirmations are our mental vitamins, providing the supplementary positive thoughts we need to balance the barrage of negative events and thoughts we experience daily.”
― Tia Walker, The Inspired Caregiver: Finding Joy While Caring for Those You Love

“You spend your life hoarding memories against the day you'll lack the energy to go out and make new ones, because that's the comfort of the old age. The ability to look back at your life and know that you left your mark on the world. But I'm losing my memories, it's like someone's broken into my piggy bank and is robbing me one penny at a time. It's happening so slowly, I can hardly tell what's missing.”
― Shaun David Hutchinson, We Are the Ants

“But I knew he wouldn't kiss me. Not tonight. Not like this. There was too much between us now, all the words and near misses. All the potential, the alternate futures that would stretch out before us in an unending spiral, all built on what happened in this moment. I held his fiery gaze and remembered the five-oh, the half-and-half, the promises I'd whispered to myself in the dawn light.

I might lose all my memories one day, but that wouldn't keep me from making them.”
― Sarah Ockler, The Book of Broken Hearts

“I read of a Buddhist teacher who developed Alzheimer's. He had retired from teaching because his memory was unreliable, but he made one exception for a reunion of his former students. When he walked onto the stage, he forgot everything, even where he was and why. However, he was a skilled Buddhist and he simply began sharing his feelings with the crowd. He said, "I am anxious. I feel stupid. I feel scared and dumb. I am worried that I am wasting everyone's time. I am fearful. I am embarrassing myself." After a few minutes of this, he remembered his talk and proceeded without apology. The students were deeply moved, not only by his wise teachings, but also by how he handled his failings.

There is a Buddhist saying, "No resistance, no demons.”
― Mary Bray Pipher, Seeking Peace: Chronicles of the Worst Buddhist in the World

“I can’t stand the thought of looking at you someday, this face I love, and not knowing who you are.”
― lisa genova, Still Alice

“Diagnosis doesn't mean you are dying tomorrow. Keep living. You won't lose your emotional memory. You'll still be capable of understanding love and joy. You might not remember what I said 5 minutes ago or even who I am but you'll remember how I made you feel. You are more than what you can remember.”
― Lisa Genova, Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting

“It's like you don't get that she's not gone yet, like you think her time left isn't meaningful anymore. You're acting like a selfish child.”
― Lisa Genova, Still Alice

“Caffeine dehydrates the brain and body.”
― Daniel G. Amen, Preventing Alzheimer's: Ways to Help Prevent, Delay, Detect, and Even Halt Alzheimer's Disease and OtherForms of Memory Loss

“The dominant narrative is a horror story. People with Alzheimer's are perceived as zombies, bodies without minds, waiting for valiant researchers to find a cure. For Alice and me, the story was different. Alzheimer's was a time of healing and magic. Of course, there is loss with dementia, but what matters is how we approach our losses and our gains. Reframing dementia as a different way of being, as a window into another reality, lets people living in that state be our teachers — useful, true humans who contribute to our collective good, instead of scary zombies.”
― Dana Walrath, Aliceheimer’s: Alzheimer’s Through the Looking Glass

“

BIDEN: “Look, folks,” the president told the adoring crowd after his wife handed him the microphone, “you know, there, uh — I shouldn’t say this, but my brother always uses lines from movies. There was a famous movie by John Wayne, and— and he’s working for the, uh, the Northern military, trying to get the Apaches back on the reservation, and they were lying like hell to him. And they’re all sitting on a bluff, and John Wayne was sitting with two Indian — they were, they were tr — Apaches. And one of them looked at John Wayne and said, ‘These guys are nothing but lying, dog-faced pony soldiers.’ ”

The crowd roared and laughed.
“Except, Trump’s just a liar,” Biden added.
No such line was ever said in any John Wayne movie.”
― Jake Tapper, Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again

“Then there was the Trumpiness of it all. A candidate just didn’t get a whole lot out of debating Trump. Even if you were beating his ass, you would lose part of your soul in that debate. Trump was such a pathological liar that it was hard for anyone to maintain the nature of what they imagined themselves to be. Trump always took you down with him.”
― Jake Tapper, Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again

“In this journey, it wasn’t her forgetting that broke me. It was the glimpses of her remembering.”
― Barb Drummond, I Finally Have the Smoking Hot Body I Have Always Wanted...: Having Been Cremated

“For example, what should you do when the person seems stuck on repeating a word, activity, or sentence over and over again? Repetition is common in the disease's later stages. The person is searching for familiarity and comfort as the brain continues its malicious march forward in decline. One of the ways to respond in addition to being calm and patient is to engage the person in an activity to break the pattern of repetition.”
― Sanjay Gupta, Keep Sharp: Build a Better Brain at Any Age

“A snapshot memory, circa 1955:
I'm draped over Dad's shoulder, bouncing along in time with his stride. It's a hot day and we're strolling through a fairground. Beside us, Verna clings to Mom's hand. A cob of corn has slipped from my sweaty clutches, and I'm shrieking at full lung capacity to have it retrieved. Bobbing over Dad's shoulder, I can see that tasty morsel - sticky with grit, no doubt - receding into the distance, and I'm furious.

My parents, facing the other direction, are oblivious to my rising howls of protest. Big sister ignores me. Curious onlookers wander by, but I'm not at all self-conscious. I want that cob of corn, and I want it now! Nothing else matters...

I learned soon enough that my parents would never react to my verbal outbursts unless they were facing me. If they couldn't see my face, it didn't count. I'm not sure when that realization dawned, but I know it was early. I recall, as a small child, running into another room to tug on Mom's arm. I knew instinctively that shouting would be useless.

From my infancy, the deaf-hearing dynamic shaped every part of our mother-child communication. Specifics elude me; I only knew that I understood her, and she understood me. Most likely, we used a blend of speaking, signs, and gestures. If I had to describe it, I'd call it mother-talk, that intimate connection that happens between mothers and their offspring. You know how they just understand each other? Well, that's how it was, with us.

Excerpt from Patricia Conrad's Gentle into the Darkness, p. 68”
― Patricia Conrad, Gentle into the Darkness: A Deaf Mother's Journey into Alzheimer's

“I Understand Mom

The fog wraps around her mind
bits and pieces of tattered thought
become blank within her eyes
minutes ago is gone, the sadness inside.

Reaching for a wonderful memory
that was just an hour ago
you fight so hard to bring it back
until you finally let it go.

I’m sorry, I don’t remember
as the tears reach her face
tears roll down a beautiful smile
while your days are being erased.

I understand Mom; I’m here for you
there’s blessings at our door
God is here, He will guide us through
with His love and so much more.”
― Ron Baratono

“My life changed in a single moment and became two distinct segments, before October 2018 and after. Alzheimer’s permeates every facet of my life.”
― Cheri Davies

“I’m bound together now in both sadness and hope. I feel grief every day, even if it’s a whisper in the background of my thoughts.”
― Cheri Davies

“I didn’t understand grief. I thought grief was something that happened when someone you love dies, not when they are still alive.”
― Cheri Davies

“As my life changed in that non-descript doctor’s office, everything around me remained the same. It was as if everyone around me was living in color, and somehow, my world had turned black and white.”
― Cheri Davies

“I'm in awe of people who deal with Alzheimer's, because they have to deal with death 10 times over, year after year.”
― Wolfelt PhD CT, Healing Your Grieving Heart When Someone You Care About Has Alzheimer's: 100 Practical Ideas for Families, Friends, and Caregivers (Healing Your Grieving Heart series) by Wolfelt PhD CT, Alan D., Duvall MD, Kirby J. (2011) Paperback

“When someone you love has dementia, you too experience a form of anticipatory grief, but yours may extend over a longer period of time (for some, as long as 20 years) and be socially unrecognized and surrounded by uncertainty.”
― Wolfelt PhD CT, Healing Your Grieving Heart When Someone You Care About Has Alzheimer's: 100 Practical Ideas for Families, Friends, and Caregivers (Healing Your Grieving Heart series) by Wolfelt PhD CT, Alan D., Duvall MD, Kirby J. (2011) Paperback

“It feels like a thief in slow motion, stealing the man I knew one memory at a time.”
― Daniel Ruczko, Purgatory

“I’m scared to forget the good memories, and only remember the terrible ones.”
― Daniel Ruczko, Purgatory

“He sits, silent,
no longer mistaking the cable
news for company—

and when he talks, he talks of childhood,
remembering some slight or conundrum
as if it is a score to be retailed

and settled after seventy-five years.”
― Anthony Walton

“Five minutes ago escapes him
as he chases 1934, unaware

of the present beauty out the window,
the banks of windswept snow—

or his wife, humming in the kitchen,
or the twilit battles in Korea, or me

when he remembers that I am his son.”
― Anthony Walton

“From my book,
Care for the Carer, An Alzheimer's Memoir

"Is there a cure?" Jane asked repeatedly.
This simple sentence had several possible meanings:

Jeff, I'm slipping, hold me.
Jeff, I'm sinking, save me.
Jeff, I'm scared, protect me.

I wanted to hug her or even to pick her up and rock her in my arms....to tell her "I'm here with you always," to admit to myself, "I'm scared too.”
― Jeff Camhi, Care for the Carer: An Alzheimer's Memoir

“I wanted to keep her from slipping out of my life.
I wanted to squeeze the Alzheimer's right out of her.
I wanted us to be who we once were.
None of that could happen.
But at least, from that day on, when words alluded Jane, hugs took their place.

From CARE FOR THE CARER, AN ALZHEIMER'S MEMOIR”
― Jeff Camhi

“From CARE FOR THE CARER, AN ALZHEIMER'S MEMOIR

'Is there a cure?' Jane asked repeatedly.
This simple sentence had several possible meanings.

Jeff, I'm slipping, hold me.
Jeff, I'm sinking, save me.
Jeff, I'm scared, protect me

I wanted to hug her or even to pick her up and rock her in my arms...”
― Jeff Camhi

“In 2017, The Journal Stroke, released a bombshell paper that revealed the risk for stroke, Alzheimer’s, & dementia in general among people who drank artificially sweetened drinks. What they found was quite remarkable. Participants who drank 1 or more artificially sweetened drinks per day had almost 3x the risk of stroke & 3x the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Within the context of uric acid specifically; here’s what to keep in mind. It’s important to avoid anything that interferes with your body’s ability to break down & filter toxins & that includes sugar substitutes.”
― David Perlmutter, Drop Acid: The Surprising New Science of Uric Acid?The Key to Losing Weight, Controlling Blood Sugar, and Achieving Extraordinary Health, Hardcover

“How's Mother?"

"In and out." As I said it I wondered which was the bad way: in or out? Was she lost when she was in her mind or out of it?”
― Percival Everett, Erasure