Mom & Me Four Archive

...considering that I deal with my mother's dementia every day? No. I'm not even afraid of the more grasping types of dementia wherein the afflicted appear to those of us who consider ourselves dementia free to have "lost themselves". I don't know why, but for some reason dementia, itself, doesn't scare me, nor does the way I expect I will be viewed by the undemented many.
    What scares the willies out of me is the kind of care I am liable to receive once having developed dementia. This is the main reason why I try so hard to remain in touch with my mother in her dementia and hope that if her dementia develops beyond where it is, now, that I can, at the very least, see to it that she continues to feel safe and comfortable within this environment we've created for her.
    Random thoughts about dementia:

• I wonder if any Bodhisattvas have ever developed classical dementia. I wonder, as well, how common classical dementia is within communities of highly dedicated Buddhist monks in comparison with standard communities.
  • I wonder, if and when classical dementia appears within these communities, how the various Buddhist disciplines explain it and care for those who display it.
• I wonder how often other types of highly disciplined, highly dedicated religious communities experience dementia among their members. Is there a higher, lower or comparative rate of classical dementia within these communities of people?
  • If there is any significant variation in the appearance of dementia in spiritually disciplined communities and people, are there also any theories as to why these variations may exist?
• I wonder if it is possible to teach meditative practices to the demented (assuming, of course, that dementia is not a deeply meditative state, which it may be, just as deep meditation may be a willfully demented state when compared with the state of being "normal").
  • If it is, and if this has been done, I wonder what effects of meditating are on the demented and whether only certain types and levels of dementia are amenable to meditative practices.
• I wonder if there are any recorded cases of any type of dementia spontaneously remitting.
  • If so, I wonder how the remitted view their experience of dementia, once it has remitted.
• I wonder if there are cultures, past or present, who view any or all types of dementia (aside from shamanistic states) as advantageous, rather than disadvantageous.
  • If so, how do these cultures incorporate and care for their demented?
• I wonder how often pets who display dementia are euthanized rather than being cared for by their hosts?
  • If the tendency to euthanize demented pets is low until the dementia becomes severe, at what point do most pet hosts euthanize their pets, and what reasons do they give for doing this?
• When someone in a Westernized culture codifies specific instructions that they do not want to be euthanized or have their plug pulled, as it were, want to be kept alive as long as possible, regardless of their condition, by any means possible, how often are their wishes honored once they have lost control versus how often do the wishes of their relatives and/or caregivers supercede their own?
  • Reference thoughts on this issue expressed in Boston Legal, Season 2, Episode 16, Live Big; not the actual trial (although some thoughts expressed by the prosecuting attorney are cogent), but a discussion between Alan Shore and Denny Crane, provoked by the trial, in which Crane reminisces about the 'euthanization' of his father, who was afflicted with dementia, the fact that his father did not appear to be living a tortured existence but was, rather, "blissful", and that Crane considers that "they" (meaning the family) 'euthanized' his father not to end the father's suffering, but their own.

    Later.