With Alzheimer’s, the person is often described as being both “here and gone”

That makes sense to me, thinking about my experience with Walter

Walter definitely went into his own world

But then he’d pop out and have a moment of clarity

This thing with Matt is different, in a profound way

I am reading a book that is helping me think through my mental framework, helping me with resiliency for the long haul

Matt seems to be here, all the time

He may have another layer of characters he sees, believes are real

He may have another set of circumstances he believes are true

But he is still here, even in the midst of those delusions and illusions

The duality is, possibly, more “man and child” than “here and gone”

When he is “off”, it seems more childlike, sometimes

• unable to figure something out
• not fully coordinated in his ability to do something
• unable to follow directions or instructions
• stunned, because his brain is not fully functional

Defining this duality better is helpful, that’s what the book seems to imply, but the book is about Alzheimer’s, not Lewy Body Dementia

I think that is right, the ability to describe, define what we can, paint a picture to come back to, helps when all else is constantly changing, fluid, in flux

Maybe its permissioning, allowing me permission to deal appropriately when the tide changes

A child’s brain fully develops over time. So at one moment, they may not be able to so something that they certainly will be able to do in the future

This thing with Matt, its somewhat the same, but in reverse.

He was able to do, but now he can’t because his brain isn’t quite right to enable it

I am going to try this today to see how it feels

The test of first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.

F Scott Fitzgerald, The Crack-Up

(as quoted by Pauline Boss, PhD in “Loving Someone Who Has Dementia”