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My mother in law did many mind puzzles every day. She still got Alzheimer's and died a couple of years later. She had multiple incidents that she hid because

My mother in law did many mind puzzles every day. She still got Alzheimer's and died a couple of years later. She had multiple incidents that she hid because she was too scared to find out, and too stubborn to lose her ability to drive. She could have had some treatment if she'd approached a doctor earlier. Alzheimer's is utterly evil. Robbing people of their unique spark, killing the person before the body dies. Sorry for the rant

jorts 2y ago
Sorry to hear that. My FIL was just diagnosed with dementia and it’s heartbreaking to watch it progress.
- RajT88 2y ago
  My neighbor passed away from dementia recently. We first moved in maybe a year after his diagnosis and had to watch it progress. Horrible. Now a friend of mine who is the best programmer I know has an early onset diagnosis. I have noticed him starting to pick fights regularly with people on LinkedIn over programming topics. It's a really, really hard thing to watch someone go through.
thinkingtoilet 2y ago
I hope we have the compassion as a society to get to the point where I can say, "If I am unable to recognize my children, please kill me." At that point I would have died regardless of the condition of my body.
- nradov 2y ago
  I hope we have the compassion as individuals not to ask others to kill us. That's a heavy weight to put on someone else. It's not abstract "society" conducting the euthanasia: individual healthcare providers would have to decide that you met the criteria and then administer the drugs.
  - armada651 2y ago
    Forcing someone to live through a disease when they have already lived a full life is simply cruel. Why should someone have to suffer on their way out?
    - nradov 2y ago
      Who is doing the forcing here? Are you personally volunteering to kill anyone who decided that they wanted to be killed if diagnosed with severe dementia? What if they change their mind (even if no longer of sound mind) and say they no longer want to die? Would you go ahead and kill them anyway?
      - armada651 2y ago
        > Who is doing the forcing here? Are you personally volunteering to kill anyone who decided that they wanted to be killed if diagnosed with severe dementia? I cannot do that because I am not a medical professional and even if I was I wouldn't be the only one making that decision. I do have a lot of respect for the people whose job it is to perform euthanasia. It's not an act of cruelty, but of kindness. > What if they change their mind (even if no longer of sound mind) and say they no longer want to die? Would you go ahead and kill them anyway? No euthanasia program is going to kill someone who says they do not wish to die. The moral hazard mainly comes from when they are no longer able to express their wish. Then the decision is based on the wish expressed when they were still able and the wish of family members. This is not all too different from someone who has suffered severe brain damage and is kept alive on life support. Would you keep them alive until they die of old age or would you respect the family's wish to stop treatment? People with severe dementia may not be on a breathing apparatus, but they also cannot survive without the constant support of hospice care. But cases where the person can no longer express their wish are exceptional. It is often that their wish to end their suffering is so strong that they will stop eating to hasten their demise. What would you do in that situation? Would you forcibly feed them through a tube because you do not believe they are allowed to determine the manner of their death? Or would you simply ignore their suffering as they die a slow and agonizing death from malnutrition? This is what I mean when I say that you would be forcing someone to suffer.
- hondo77 2y ago
  I don't want to wait that long. If I get diagnosed with Alzheimer's, I am taking a quick farewell tour of family and friends and then I'm done. I don't want to wait so long that I need someone else to off me. I wish that all wasn't necessary but this country (US) isn't going to get smarter anytime soon.
  - djmips 2y ago
    There are lots of reasons why that might not play out the way you plan.
- carlosjobim 2y ago
  You always have the option to die whenever you want to. Why would you put the burden of ending your life upon other people? That's utter cowardice.
  - thinkingtoilet 2y ago
    In my opinion, there is a line that needs to be crossed and that line is extremely hard to define. To be safe, you have to go past the line so any blurriness is removed. I would ask the people I love the most to shoulder this burden and I would offer to shoulder the same burden for them. This is how love works.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - LorenPechtel 2y ago
    No, you don't have the option. To have the option you must have the ability. Consider the hypothetical that started this: "if I don't recognize my children". At that point the ability to do it yourself is gone.
    - carlosjobim 2y ago
      Another possibility is that millions of people have said that they don't want to live to grow so old that they don't have their wits. But when the days come, they don't really want to die.
Kenji 2y ago
[dead]
commandlinefan 2y ago
Yep, first thing I thought, too. I'm terrified of age-related degeneration, so I try to stay active and mentally alert, just like my father did. He got out and played golf every chance he had, did duo-lingo to try to learn to speak Spanish, played bass in his church band, kept working even though he didn't need the money... and still got Alzheimers. Now he can't drive, can't be trusted to go out and take a walk by himself, can't even work the TV, so all he can do is sit and watch DVD's that my mom changes for him - at least while she still can. I'm still going to try to fight it for myself, though.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
DCH3416 2y ago
Hopefully a cure comes as a form of vaccine so some folks can be totally against that. I don't think mental stimulation correlates to the development of alzheimers anyway. The papers I've touched on the subject seem to suggest a mechanical failure in proteins essentially choking off and killing brain structure. Although the lucidity period shortly before death is interesting.
swinglock 2y ago
What kind of incidents, if you don't mind?
- bloopernova 2y ago
  Hallucinating while driving, seeing people or animals that weren't there. That happened multiple times over several years before the diagnosis. Unfortunately she didn't share what other incidents she had, I really wish she had.
pessimizer 2y ago
Alzheimer's is a disease, you can get it in your 40s. If somebody recommends exercise to keep your legs healthy, they don't mean that if you have a staph infection in your legs that exercise will make it go away. My grandfather had vascular dementia, and keeping him thinking and using his brain absolutely helped. Makes sense for a problem of blood flow that thinking new, hard stuff might direct some more blood supply to the brain. Also, 1) you don't know for sure if you have Alzheimer's until you're gone, and 2) it seems that vascular dementia co-occurs with Alzheimer's a lot. So I can't imagine that it would ever be a good idea to stop using your mind if you felt it slipping.

jorts 2y ago

Sorry to hear that. My FIL was just diagnosed with dementia and it’s heartbreaking to watch it progress.

RajT88 2y ago
My neighbor passed away from dementia recently. We first moved in maybe a year after his diagnosis and had to watch it progress. Horrible. Now a friend of mine who is the best programmer I know has an early onset diagnosis. I have noticed him starting to pick fights regularly with people on LinkedIn over programming topics. It's a really, really hard thing to watch someone go through.

thinkingtoilet 2y ago

I hope we have the compassion as a society to get to the point where I can say, "If I am unable to recognize my children, please kill me." At that point I would have died regardless of the condition of my body.

nradov 2y ago
I hope we have the compassion as individuals not to ask others to kill us. That's a heavy weight to put on someone else. It's not abstract "society" conducting the euthanasia: individual healthcare providers would have to decide that you met the criteria and then administer the drugs.
- armada651 2y ago
  Forcing someone to live through a disease when they have already lived a full life is simply cruel. Why should someone have to suffer on their way out?
  - nradov 2y ago
    Who is doing the forcing here? Are you personally volunteering to kill anyone who decided that they wanted to be killed if diagnosed with severe dementia? What if they change their mind (even if no longer of sound mind) and say they no longer want to die? Would you go ahead and kill them anyway?
    - armada651 2y ago
      > Who is doing the forcing here? Are you personally volunteering to kill anyone who decided that they wanted to be killed if diagnosed with severe dementia? I cannot do that because I am not a medical professional and even if I was I wouldn't be the only one making that decision. I do have a lot of respect for the people whose job it is to perform euthanasia. It's not an act of cruelty, but of kindness. > What if they change their mind (even if no longer of sound mind) and say they no longer want to die? Would you go ahead and kill them anyway? No euthanasia program is going to kill someone who says they do not wish to die. The moral hazard mainly comes from when they are no longer able to express their wish. Then the decision is based on the wish expressed when they were still able and the wish of family members. This is not all too different from someone who has suffered severe brain damage and is kept alive on life support. Would you keep them alive until they die of old age or would you respect the family's wish to stop treatment? People with severe dementia may not be on a breathing apparatus, but they also cannot survive without the constant support of hospice care. But cases where the person can no longer express their wish are exceptional. It is often that their wish to end their suffering is so strong that they will stop eating to hasten their demise. What would you do in that situation? Would you forcibly feed them through a tube because you do not believe they are allowed to determine the manner of their death? Or would you simply ignore their suffering as they die a slow and agonizing death from malnutrition? This is what I mean when I say that you would be forcing someone to suffer.
hondo77 2y ago
I don't want to wait that long. If I get diagnosed with Alzheimer's, I am taking a quick farewell tour of family and friends and then I'm done. I don't want to wait so long that I need someone else to off me. I wish that all wasn't necessary but this country (US) isn't going to get smarter anytime soon.
- djmips 2y ago
  There are lots of reasons why that might not play out the way you plan.
carlosjobim 2y ago
You always have the option to die whenever you want to. Why would you put the burden of ending your life upon other people? That's utter cowardice.
- thinkingtoilet 2y ago
  In my opinion, there is a line that needs to be crossed and that line is extremely hard to define. To be safe, you have to go past the line so any blurriness is removed. I would ask the people I love the most to shoulder this burden and I would offer to shoulder the same burden for them. This is how love works.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- LorenPechtel 2y ago
  No, you don't have the option. To have the option you must have the ability. Consider the hypothetical that started this: "if I don't recognize my children". At that point the ability to do it yourself is gone.
  - carlosjobim 2y ago
    Another possibility is that millions of people have said that they don't want to live to grow so old that they don't have their wits. But when the days come, they don't really want to die.

Kenji 2y ago

[dead]

commandlinefan 2y ago

Yep, first thing I thought, too. I'm terrified of age-related degeneration, so I try to stay active and mentally alert, just like my father did. He got out and played golf every chance he had, did duo-lingo to try to learn to speak Spanish, played bass in his church band, kept working even though he didn't need the money... and still got Alzheimers. Now he can't drive, can't be trusted to go out and take a walk by himself, can't even work the TV, so all he can do is sit and watch DVD's that my mom changes for him - at least while she still can. I'm still going to try to fight it for myself, though.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

DCH3416 2y ago

Hopefully a cure comes as a form of vaccine so some folks can be totally against that. I don't think mental stimulation correlates to the development of alzheimers anyway. The papers I've touched on the subject seem to suggest a mechanical failure in proteins essentially choking off and killing brain structure. Although the lucidity period shortly before death is interesting.

swinglock 2y ago

What kind of incidents, if you don't mind?

bloopernova 2y ago
Hallucinating while driving, seeing people or animals that weren't there. That happened multiple times over several years before the diagnosis. Unfortunately she didn't share what other incidents she had, I really wish she had.

pessimizer 2y ago

Alzheimer's is a disease, you can get it in your 40s. If somebody recommends exercise to keep your legs healthy, they don't mean that if you have a staph infection in your legs that exercise will make it go away. My grandfather had vascular dementia, and keeping him thinking and using his brain absolutely helped. Makes sense for a problem of blood flow that thinking new, hard stuff might direct some more blood supply to the brain. Also, 1) you don't know for sure if you have Alzheimer's until you're gone, and 2) it seems that vascular dementia co-occurs with Alzheimer's a lot. So I can't imagine that it would ever be a good idea to stop using your mind if you felt it slipping.