Dementia Is Us

Here is the dementia check list provided by the Alzheimer Society today, worried that too few are diagnosed at a stage early enough to receive beneficial treatment. Others must sail on a Sea of Tranquility if their answers are not 'Yes, but it all depends'.

'Do you struggle to remember recent events while finding it easy to recall things that happened in the past?'

Memory has been shown to be a very personal production, highly edited, and reinforced by subsequent interpretation - like more general history. Surprisingly rarely do we need accurate recall of the recent or distant past; much of what is needed is organised within routines that trigger appropriate responses regardless of actual recall effectiveness. We 'play' our jobs, and to a lesser degree our lives rather as a musician plays, with a great deal of the detail determined below levels of immediate consciousness. Consciousness is used to enhance and refine not remember, which suggests we're up to almost anything with what we commonly call 'memory' anyway.

'Do you find it hard to follow conversations or programmes on TV?'

Echoic effects get in the way here; if the correspondence between the attention-level offered, and the conversation/programme is appropriate, and that depends on a lot outside the viewer's control, as well as surrounding inputs from the viewing environment, then following is not hard; but if the pitch of the programme is wrong I will start entertaining myself with almost anything from shouting at the tv (that seems to be a growing habit amongst us all), idly identifying what imagery has been taken from where, both visual and other, phasing in and out as it's a bit slow, and general reflection (a Catholic childhood does a great deal for developing reflection). Nor does it seem reasonable to class conversation as an alternative to a television programme.

'Do you regularly forget the names of friends or everyday objects?'

No, I do not forget the names of friends; to forget a name is a giveaway of the true status of the forgetee. Everyday objects are as different from friends, not least in their being objects, as tv programmes are from conversations. The names of plants and streets often not so much escape me as wilfully substitute themselves for one another. This is because when I think it tends to be in a first level rough and ready manner - that stuff over there, I'll sort it later or if I need anything I've put there, fashion. So Jesus Lane and Trinity Street are as one, or New Street and Corporation Street - they're all in the centre when doing things like shopping or going to the bank. The plant names over-there heap drives Mr HG to distraction; for him they are all highly distinct, all friends in their latin botanic dress. He forgets anniversaries, birthdays - presents and flowers arrive when he thinks of the person, not the date, so happily they arrive much more often and not necessarily when waking on a birthday in a temper (and who wouldn't given this dementia threat).

'Do you find it difficult to recall things heard, seen or read?'

There's always a remnant of a memory and then it can be used to google. It must have been awful to be Mr Casaubon.

'Do you struggle to make decisions?'

Choices yes, decisions, no. Bossy Boots incarnate.

'Do you repeat yourself in conversation or lose the thread of what you are saying?'
Again, why are these paired? Repeating is a rhetorical device of considerable force, cf any worth listening-to speaker of right or left since always. Losing the thread usually comes on after dinner but is often unnoticed as everybody else has too.

Do you have problems thinking and reasoning?

Honestly, who doesn't. Even being able to contemplate an answer to this one is a shining beacon of sense and sensibility. Can I think straight? Up to a point, my lord.

'Do you feel anxious and depressed or angry about forgetfulness?'

No, It's a fascinating topic, forgetfulness; it deserves a long thoughtfulness all to itself, and others' thoughts too.

'Do other people comment on your forgetfulness?'

Yes, since I was very young forgetfulness has been a lively subject of comment, extending across: what is owed to parents, place (in the sense of my), domestic tasks, homework, consideration of (or perhaps for) others, manners, grooming (hands, before eating, hair, brushing properly, shoes, clothes, changing of before ruining school uniform etc.); comment has lessened in adulthood and covers now: promises, failures, successes, awful moments, unwise remarks - the list is as long as a life.