Neuro Note 2

  "How my dad's dementia changed my idea of death (and life)" 

By: Beth Malone

    In this Ted Talk, Beth talked about an encounter she had with her dad. Beth started this ted talk saying, "I've been doing some thinking. I'm going to kill my dad. I called my sister." Now this is not a phrase that many people would openly say to an audience of strangers but she was going through something that people would never dream of: her father was struggling with frontotemporal lobe dementia (FTD). Beth's thought process was that her dad was being tortured and his body was the vessel of that torture. She wanted to get him out of that body so that he could be free. FTD is a group of disorders that occurs from a progressive loss of nerve cells in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. This causes the lobes to shrink and can affect behavior, personality, language, and movement. Beth's dad experienced a major personality change and this caused him to get arrested and kicked out of many nursing homes. According to John Hopkins Medicine, the most common types of FTD are frontal variant frontotemporal dementia and primary progressive aphasia. Frontal variant affects behavior and personality and often occurs in people in their 50s and 60s. Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) affects communication and normally comes on before age 65. PPA has 2 subtypes: progressive non-fluent aphasia where individuals lose the ability to speak and semantic dementia, which affects the ability to use and understand language. 

    I chose this Ted Talk because I wanted to hear about what family members experience as someone they love is struggling with dementia. I read about the facts and statistics of dementia during classes, but hearing a personal story gives me a better understanding of what family members go through. While listening to Beth tell the story of her conversation between her and her father as he drank the ginger ale, I felt so many emotions and teared up. She went in to the room that day with the thought that it would better to kill her dad so his spirit could be free from his diseased body. However, after seeing him drink his ginger ale and remember who she was all she could say to him was that she missed him. In that little moment, he seemed okay and she realized that it not her responsibility to rid him of his pain. She is just responsible for being there for him as his daughter and loving him through the pain. I am sure so many people have with these thoughts when someone they care so deeply for someone who is struggling with dementia. It's hard not to just want their suffering to go away. But sometimes it is best just to be there with them so that when they have good moments, they can experience them with loved ones. 

    I highly recommend listening to this Ted Talk. It is a short 7 minute video but it gives you such a great perspective on what family members and loved ones of a person with dementia go through on a day-to-day basis. 

    

    

Sources

    Malone, B. (2017, November). "How my dad's dementia changed my idea of death (and life)" [Video]. TED Conferences.  https://www.ted.com/talks/beth_malone_how_my_dad_s_dementia_changed_my_idea_of_death_and_life/details#t-402337

    Frontotemporal Dementia. (n.d.). Johns Hopkins Medicine. Retrieved July 29, 2021, from https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/dementia/frontotemporal-dementia