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I believe (based on anecdotal and personal experience) that dementia may share some properties with psychedelics. My mother began suffering from dementia a few
by LocalH 3y ago
I believe (based on anecdotal and personal experience) that dementia may share some properties with psychedelics.
My mother began suffering from dementia a few months before she passed. The biggest clue to the similarities was one time when she was telling me that she was seeing demons in the corner of the room. About a month prior, I'd had a pretty potent DMT experience that seems to have innately "taught" me a few things. Based on that, I told her to think about Jesus Christ (she was quite religious), I gave her about 30 seconds (which, I was presuming, felt like much longer to her). When I then asked her what she was seeing, she said "bright colors and flowers". Emotion having that high of an effect on what she saw was very much like how psychedelics tend to amplify your emotions and bring them to the vision system.
She also would talk about how she just got back from writing a novel or a movie. Before my DMT experience, I didn't have the knowledge to be able to lean into it, so I'd challenge it. Afterwards, I knew enough to lean into it. I'd ask her about her latest "work". I believe that in her mind, she was actually traveling to write books and movies.
If you have a loved one suffering from dementia, I almost want to suggest that you should take some time (if possible) and have a small psychedelic experience (or, if you want, dive into DMT). It may help you greatly understand and support your loved one. If you don't want to have such an experience yourself, at least lean into what they say their experiences are, never fight against them.
- tnel77 3y agoHow beautiful and terrifying. Thank you for sharing your story.
- LocalH 3y agoFortunately, the aforementioned DMT experience helped me process her end-of-life greatly. Even my father noticed a very quick and thorough change in my demeanor. I was also extremely fortunate to be able to experience the moment when she actually reached her peace. I was no longer worried about her, because I deeply felt that her transition into death was going to be happy and peaceful. I never really experienced any grief as a result of that.
- kar5pt 3y agoI was told that in the early stages of dementia, it's good to challenge their unrealistic beliefs, but in the later stages its best to go along with them. Middle and late stage dementia patients are basically in a constant state of confusion. The human mind can't handle being confused all the time, so it will make up stories that make their world make sense. Once they're at that stage, it's kinder to just let them live in that world, rather than pulling them back into confusion. When my mom used to take my grandfather with dementia out to lunch, he would always insist that he'd been to that restaurant before, even if he hadn't. It was his way of convincing himself something was familiar, limiting that perpetual confusion.
- LocalH 3y ago* * *
- kayodelycaon 3y agoYeah. It's a sad disease. Psychosis combined with emotional disregulation is not fun. Fighting against it doesn't work very well because the other person isn't seeing what you're seeing. From my own experience, I explain psychosis as someone trying to tell me a cloudless sky is pink. I've known the sky is blue my entire life. Everyone knows the sky is blue. Who is this bizarre person who thinks otherwise? On top of that, humans tend to double down when challenged. Fighting it just doesn't work. Their memory is gone, so any progress you've made is undone very quickly. If you don't understand what is happening, you're going to lose your mind too.