Changing Emotions
How to Cope With th eUps and Downs of Your Loved One's Moods
Dear Caregivers,
To understand how Alzheimer's disease impacts your loved one’s emotions, it is important to keep in mind that Alzheimer’s disease can affect different parts of the brain in different ways. This imbalance contributes to the common emotional symptoms associated with Alzheimer’s, which include depression, apathy, anxiety, fear, and agitation.
A person’s emotions are "housed" in two areas in the brain called the frontal lobe and the amygdala.
The frontal lobe is the main control center for the brain’s emotional control. Even in its earliest stages, Alzheimer’s disease can damage this specific part of the brain, resulting in your loved one having difficulty controlling their emotional responses.
At the same time as this emotional control center is faltering, however, the other key area of the brain for emotions, the amygdala, is often spared from the effects of Alzheimer's disease. The result is that in the early to middle stages people suffering from Alzheimer’s are still able to feel a wide range of positive emotions (happiness, joy, love, humor) and negative emotions (fear, anxiety, loneliness), which are part of what is known as a person’s "fight-or-flight" response.
This combination of your loved one retaining their ability to feel fear and anxiety -- but losing their ability to control their emotional response to these feelings -- creates the potential for exaggerated emotions and unexpected upset. What may seem to you to be a calm and low-stress situation may upset your loved one greatly, resulting in some loved ones being irritable or angry (fight), while others may show depression, lethargy, and social isolation (flight.) It is also possible to have a certain emotional response one day and a different reaction to the same situation the next day.
Read on to learn more about coping with the emotional changes in your loved one.
Managing Difficult Behaviors:
Some of their greatest challenges facing caregivers arise from the mood, personality, and behavior changes that can occur as Alzheimer’s disease changes your loved one’s brain. Here are some recommendations for handling these situations.
Think FAST!
One type of behavior change you may notice in your loved one is that they may “get stuck” on focusing on a particular topic. Your loved one may not realize they are “stuck” on this topic, or the topic may create anxiety, sadness, or anger in your loved one. One way to manage this is to be prepared with a strategy involving Food, Activity, Story, and Trip. As we like to say and hope you remember, Think FAST!
The Apathy Syndrome:
Nearly half the patients suffering from Alzheimer’s develop apathy in the early and intermediate stages of their disease. When this happens, it is common for family members to struggle with how far to “push” their loved one in an effort to get him or her motivated, which can result in conflict or guilt. Here are some coping strategies.
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Best,
Rosemary D Laird, MD, MHSA
Founder and Chief Medical Officer
“Flowers are restful to look at. They have neither emotions nor conflicts.”
— Sigmund Freud
