Psychological Effects Of Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer’s disease is a terrible thing to happen to a loved one. My grandmother, Gerry Carlin, became diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease three years ago. Her life has changed so much. First this disease destroys the neurons in your brain that is related to memory. Gerry tends to forget an awful lot. She is eighty-five years old, so being forgetful can occur with normal aging, but with Gerry this has affected her being independent. She has to depend on someone to wake her up and get her dressed. She is incontinent at times, and must wear a brief. This was hard for her to deal with at first, because Gerry was a very independent women who did everything for herself. Having someone in her home giving her around the clock care was definitely an …show more content…
This kills the neurons in the brain. This disease has no cure and is an irreversible disease. Alzheimer’s disease impairs one’s memory and cognitive processes (Petrasek, 2015). Alzheimer’s disease occurs when there is an abnormal amount of amyloid plaque and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain. These tangles and plaque are present in the cerebral cortex, especially in the area where new memories are made. Alzheimer’s disease patients have a hard time forming new memories. For example if Gerry’s granddaughter Kelly had a baby a year from now, and Gerry held it in her arms. A month could go by and she most likely would not even remember her having a …show more content…
The stages go in order, but can vary in the length. The first stage is the preclinical stage. In this stage, the client will start developing the plaques and tangles, before the symptoms appear (before you would go to the clinic). The second stage of Alzheimer’s disease is mild cognitive impairment. The individual now has the symptoms of the disease, but there is only impairment in one cognitive domain and is not disabling. This affects the person’s working memory as well (Kirova, 2015). For example, it may take more time to complete a task, like getting dressed, but the task is still able to be completed independently. Individuals over the age of sixty-five can go through this too, without having Alzheimer’s disease. Lastly, the third stage of Alzheimer’s disease is the dementia stage. In this stage, there are two or more impairments (that are disabling the person). This makes an individual dependent on others to complete activities of daily living. This is the current stage that Gerry is at. She has progressed rapid through the first two stages, and has slowed down through this