Why do people with Alzheimer's never listen, and he doesnt have it bad! please read?

my grandfather has Alzheimer's and he walks around and roots through things, and he always is messing with something.. for example he messed up the big screen tv because he was touching and then this morning i told him not to keep messing with it and wait for grandma to come home so she can call direct tv and he still wont listen he is STILL over there trying to mess with it.. can someone explain why they do this certain stuff, like just mess with stuff and you knw.. i feel bad but i get soo frustrated!! and i hate how i get, because thats not my grandfather and what he used to be like.. now he acts completely different, he cant even use vocabulary right and he just WONT give up his lic to my grandma and he is starting to become dangerous driving.. how can i just calm down and handle it? what do you think about this disease?

You were right when you said that this person is not really your grandfather anymore. His brain is damaged, and he may be sick enough that he doesn't understand everything that you're telling him anymore. Sure, he hears the words, but he may not understand that he can't fix the tv or that he needs to stop messing with it. Or maybe in his world, he's scared that he broke it and he's trying to fix it like a little kid hides a broken toy before his parents catch him. Or he might be fiddling with it and not even understand why he's touching it. These are all guesses, since it changes from patient to patient. Some patients know that they have Alzheimers (my husband once said he knew his brain was "broken") but some patients think that they're ok and everyone else is trying to confuse them. Read as much as you can to understand the disease. It's hard not to be angry sometimes since the Alzheimer's patient still looks the same on the outside, so you have to constantly remind yourself that his brain isn't working anymore.

Distracting him might help to stop him from doing something that you don't want him to do. For ex., you could tell him that you're giving him a snack in the kitchen and that he can work on the tv later. He might not remember to go back to the tv after the snack.

The driving thing is a major problem. His doctor should pull his drivers' license. When someone drives, they have to watch the road, other cars, things along the road like kids on bikes, stop signs, etc. An Alzheimers' patient's brain is damaged, and they can no longer multi-task. My husband drove for 40 years before he was diagnosed. As soon as he was diagnosed his doctor reported him and his license was taken away. He was really mad! We went to a hospital to have him tested so he could get his license back. We thought he could drive for awhile longer, and that he'd give up his license someday in the future when the illness had progressed further. He was fine with the road test, but he mixed up a few of the street signs on the written test. He also COMPLETELY failed a test to see if he could watch more than one thing at a time/peripheral vision, and this was at the very earliest stage of a new diagnosis of Alzheimers!! It was a very scary discovery. People hate to give up their license since it means losing independence, but there's a good reason for Alzheimers' patients to stop driving. The Alzheimers patient himself/herself has impaired judgment, and won't be able to determine when it's time to stop driving. Please show this to your family. If he gets in an accident and they let him drive knowing that he has Alzheimers, they could be sued and lose everything, not to mention the harm done to whoever is injured.

Alzheimer's disease is a disease of the brain that gets worse over time. It is the most common cause of dementia among people over the age of 65, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Alzheimer's disease is not a normal sign of aging.

Little is understood about what causes Alzheimer's disease and what can be done to prevent or cure it. The best known aspects of the disease are the symptoms of dementia it produces and the characteristic changes seen in the brains of patients after death. The symptoms of Alzheimer's disease occur when neurons (nerve cells) in the brain die or break connections with other neurons. Also, people with Alzheimer's disease have protein deposits in and around the neurons called beta-amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, which are thought to disrupt the function of the neurons. However, these plaques and tangles can only be identified during an autopsy and their role in the development of the disease or its symptoms is not understood.

Learn more about the symptoms and prognosis for Alzheimer's disease at iVillage.com - Your Total Health:

http://yourtotalhealth.ivillage.com/alzh...

The above answer will very fact-based, but didn't really answer your question.

Try to understand for a minute the concept of a medical problem that alters the very way you think. One tends to do things that, to them, make complete sense, but don't conform to any kind of sense they once had. Perhaps when he was healthy he was a very self-reliant person, and so he is experiencing this as a loss of his ability to take care of himself, and thus his very dignity. It's not fair for anyone involved, him least of all.

If you are concerned with his driving (a perfectly reasonable concern), talk to a police officer in your area. I'm sure he/she can point you in the right direction as to having him tested to see if his driver's license needs to be revoked.

Alzheimer's is one of the most brutal deseases one can have. It starts out with short term memory problems, which usually can be covered up. It goes on to effect judgement, speech, thinking. In a way a person develops backwards to end up like a helpless child and eventually the body will completely "forget" how to function. You can already see in your grandpa that he has no problem whatsoever to tell you what happened 30 years ago, but he cant remember what to do with the tv remote. The family also needs to intervene now to persuade him to relinquish his drivers license. And you ought to contact the Alzheimer's Association to get more information and some support for yourself and your grandma. Alzheimer's, in the earlier stages, is hard on the person suffering from it and hard on the people around.In the later stages, it is heartbreaking on the people around. Get some support.

This is a very rough disease also on the family. I would suggest you get ahold of the Alzheimer's Disease Association. They can give you some ideas on how to deal with issues and they also provide support to families. It would be worth checking out what they may have to offer you.

hi, my granny had the same thing and always fidled with her hand bag and that was at the early stages of Alzheimers she constantly was hidin and losing this. i used to have to follow her around... it is so frustrating but be glad he is still there my gran got so bad with it and is now dead. try be patient even though its hard xo