When we go to the gym, it’s kind of amusing to watch people walk by the giant walls of mirrors, looking at themselves all the way. Lately, because of the way Mitzi’s brain processes what she sees, mirrors have become a bit confusing. She doesn’t always recognize herself (frankly, I look in the mirror most days and don’t recognize the non-20-something-looking gal staring back at me!). It has really been bugging her because she knows it’s not really another person, but she doesn’t trust her mind. After many conversations about it, we finally got to the root of her uneasiness: she was afraid she was starting to hallucinate. You cannot imagine her relief when I reassured her that hallucinating would be seeing something that isn’t really there. In this case, she is seeing something that’s real, it’s just that her eyes, depth perception, and brain aren’t working quite in tandem to process the information correctly.
Alzheimer’s has some hard realities sometimes. But so much of what is needed is just to make the person feel like they’re being heard, understood, and that they are not alone. Don’t we all need that, Alzheimer’s or not? Makes all the difference in the world…❤️
