At a conference in New Orleans last week, I had the great privilege of moderating a panel of people with Alzheimer’s disease as they talked about what it’s like to live with this debilitating condition. Even the gentleman whose word-finding difficulties were quite advanced and frustrating for him (He had been an economics professor) was amazingly eloquent as he described how he managed to find a way around the words he could no longer conjure up. All of the panelists described the importance of maintaining a sense of humor. They heartily agreed with what Kurt Vonnegut once said,
“Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion.I myself prefer to laugh,
since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.”
At the end, the panelists received a well-deserved standing ovation. If you are planning a conference at which dementia is a topic, my advice for the most moving and enlightening presentation possible is to give people who have Alzheimer’s disease a chance to talk for themselves. (For tips on how to prepare the participants, contact mailto:kathy@wisernow.com )
