The Good Day Bad Day Cycle: Good Days and Bad Days With Dementia

There are four cycles we talk about at Dementia Life. The Diagnostic Cycle. The Exhaustion Cycle. The Grief Cycle. And this one — the one that, in some ways, is the most quietly cruel. The Good Day...

The Dementia Grief Cycle: When Grief Doesn't Start or End Cleanly

We talk about cycles in dementia. The Diagnostic Cycle. The Exhaustion Cycle. The cycle of good days and bad ones. But the one that catches people most off guard — the one that keeps coming back — ...

The Diagnostic Cycle: Getting a Dementia Diagnosis in the UK

Before a dementia diagnosis, there's a period that nobody prepares you for. It doesn't have a name. Nobody documents it in clinical terms. But if you've been through it, you know exactly what it fe...

The Exhaustion Cycle: The Physical Toll of Caring for Someone With Dementia

We talk a lot about cycles in dementia. The diagnostic cycle. The grief cycle. The cycle of good days and bad ones. But there's one that is so prevalent across the world with family carers that I h...

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 ...