ADI 2001 New Zealand -
Presentation by Christine Bryden - Slides 9 to 12
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Slide 9
We need any resources you can give us at that critical turning
point of diagnosis, to help us retain cogntive skills to work
through our issues, as a springboard to greater spiritual
and emotional strength.
The most important thing to do at the moment of diagnosis
is to give us anti-dementia drugs to slow further decline.
Do not delay!
Remember, treatment delayed is treatment denied.
These drugs - cholinesterase inhibitors - act to inhibit the
breakdown of a chemical messenger in our brain so helping
what remains to work better. They seem to keep us where we
are, not recapture what we have lost, so it is important to
start them as early as possible. Not only do they help our
cognitive function, they also help with our behaviour and
general function.
Complementary medicines are also important. Indeed in double
blind placebo controlled studies the efficacy of Ginkgo biloba
is comparable to cholinesterase inhibitors. Such controlled
studies have also shown Vitamin E or selegiline delay decline.
I have been taking an anti-dementia drug since 1995, and Vitamin
E and Gingko since 1997. They work for me.
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 Slide 9 |
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Slide 10
Without the drugs it’s like thinking in fog and
walking through treacle. The tablets give our life back
and give us the key to a new future.
We can think more clearly, feel less tired, and be more
in control of our lives and our behaviour.
But we still ebb and flow like a parallel universe of untreated
and treated dementia. We have our good days and our bad
days. As my friend Morris has said, there are “windows
of clarity” which we must take advantage of.
Unpredictably we can feel exhausted, confused, muddle-headed.
Life seems too difficult and we retreat. We may even experience
what you call a catastrophic reaction when life becomes
too much to deal with. But remember, dementia is an abnormal
situation, and as Viktor Frankl has said “An abnormal
reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behaviour.”
But without anti-dementia drugs or complementary medicines,
this abnormal behavior is how it would be all the time.
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 Slide 10 |
Slide 11
After diagnosis and drugs comes determination. We who have
experienced the trauma of a diagnosis of dementia, and are
relatively stable on drugs, now must try to move from being
a victim to becoming a survivor.
The challenge is to draw on our psychic resources to step
across that yawning chasm of fear that opened up at that moment
of diagnosis. How can we live in a world of hope, alternatives,
growth and possibility, when dementia threatens our sense
of self?
We need to create a new image of who we are and who we are
becoming. How we do this depends very much on our personality,
our life story, our health, our spirituality, and our social
environment. We can choose the attitude we have, and, like
Frankl, look for meaning in our lives through the attitude
we take toward unavoidable suffering..
We need to make sure we do not retreat into helplessness and
let you take over our functioning, nor try to act as normal
and become stressed at how difficult this is.
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 Slide 11 |
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Slide 12
Like Itzhak Perlman, the violinist who needs crutches to
get on stage, we PWiDs have a vital task on our journey
with dementia. “It is the artist’s task to find
out how much music you can still make with what you have
left.” Like him we must often struggle to cope, to
create, to dazzle, despite our limitations.
We can discover new talents, focusing on relationships,
emotions, spirituality, rather than on cognition. By assigning
cognition a secondary place, being content with our new
life in the slow lane, we can enhance these other aspects
of our personality.
Many of us have learned how to communicate over the Net,
finding great joy in encouraging each other, and deep support
in sharing with others. We have made new friends in our
support groups, and have become much more attuned to our
emotions than ever before.
Many of us can identify with Basil Hume, when he was diagnosed
with cancer: “I have received two wonderful graces.
First the time to prepare for a new future. Secondly, I
find myself - uncharacteristically - at peace.”
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 Slide 12 |
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