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Suzanne Kramer said > >I've come to realize that I don't really mind my mother's dementia so much. > At least there is forward momentum in it, which I find far preferable to >the fear and anxiety that come with body symptoms like "internal tremors". And: >As one doctor said to my sister in law, advanced as she is with chronic >Lyme Disease, "Dementia? You're going to Love it!" Suzanne and All: I can understand that a touch of benign dementia might be preferable on those daily occasions when I am helpless to do much to ease my husband's pain and frustration as he struggles with the daily kaleidescope of dystonia, dyskinesia, bradykinesia, freezing, internal tremors, RLS, and all the rest of the unpleasant features of advancing PD. But it all depends on what brand of dementia we are talking about here. Some delusions are terrifying and destructive. Others worry the patient badly and may be paranoid. Sometimes they are a danger to the patient or others. But others are helpful and even amusing and the patient knows they are not real. Some are medication-induced but others are due to destructive changes in the brain or its chemistry. My husband has been free of medication-induced hallucinations for nearly a year... until last night. In the past these have ranged from gentle visions of little children and animals populating the rooms to mobs of strangers who were trashing the house and ignoring pleas to stop. Often there were children who were trying to help him when he was crawling about in the night confused about where he was. Then, with supervision and adjustments in medications, these episodes stopped. But last night we had another example of the helpful and benign type. During the night my husband had gotten out of bed, probably while asleep, and became disoriented. When he tried to sit on the bed he landed on the floor and was relieved when, according to him, first President Clinton, then Hilary, and even daughter Chelsea, arrived one after the other to try to help him up. Now THAT was a delusion we both got a laugh out of in the morning. Whether mild and relatively benign, or terrifying and destructive, these delusions are even more disturbing for those who observe them in someone they care for and they inevitably make the caregiver's job more difficult and emotionally painful. Martha Rohrer (CG for Neal, 77/12) [log in to unmask]