Dementia Carer Burnout and a Sensory Deprivation Tank

Dementia Carer Burnout: I Didn’t Know How Far I’d Drifted When someone you love is diagnosed with dementia, the mental load doesn’t arrive all at once. It builds. A new worry here, a new responsibi...

Folic Acid, Bread, and the Six Months We Lost

I don’t want to drag all of you reading this back to that awful time of trying to get a diagnosis for your loved one. Some of you might even be going through this now. Unfortunately, I am going to ...

An Annual Review That Didn't Mention The Word "Dementia"

Do you smoke? How much do you smoke? Have you thought about quitting smoking? Do you drink? How much do you drink? Do you exercise? How much do you exercise? How is your diet? Blood pressure. Blood...

Looking Over My Shoulder: Dementia and Ageing

Me and my siblings all have a shared childhood memory – running to keep up with mum. She would storm through the underpasses, to the town, we'd chase her around the shops and then be begging her to...

The “Just to Let You Know” Moment

“Just to let you know your mum just turned up for a coffee...” My reaction, “for fuck’s sake” - obviously, I said this to myself and not in a reply text. And the truth is I didn’t say it in an an...

Dementia Life Review: Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker — Sleep, Night Shifts, and Dementia Risk

I want to talk about sleep. It’s a topic that I’ve certainly had a love-hate relationship with over the years. I’ve been reading Why We Sleep, the number one Sunday Times Bestseller, by Professor M...

My Mum Forgot My Dad's Birthday

I was sitting in my folks’ kitchen with mum recently, having a cup of coffee. I had Orla with me, she was lying on the tiled floor next to my mum, looking forlorn as normal. I think my mum was tryi...

Why "Demented" Became a Playground Insult (And What That Says About Dementia)

We said it all the time at school. "You're demented, mate." It meant stupid, unhinged, out of control, really, it meant whatever we needed it to. Nobody gave it a second thought, because nobody in ...

One Day At a Time

One day at a time. Taking things day by day. Take each day as it comes. Each one of these has the same basic proposition: don’t think about tomorrow. As propositions go, it can be a comforting one....

Dementia Life Expectancy: The Lives Behind The Numbers

Dementia Life Expectancy When my mum was diagnosed with young-onset Alzheimer’s the first thing I did was dive headfirst into some deep rabbit holes of late-night googling. Initially I searched for...

Dementia Carer Guilt: Why Feeling Guilty Doesn’t Make You a Bad Person

Letting Go of Guilt If I asked every person in our community to name the emotion that follows them around most persistently, I’d be willing to bet that the majority would say the same thing. Guilt...

The Invisible Weight of Caring for Someone With Dementia

Feeling Unseen There’s a particular kind of loneliness that comes with caring for someone with dementia. It’s not the loneliness of being physically alone. You might still be surrounded by people....