(Note: This is an evolving, roughly written *letter* to friends which seeks to invite others to some discussion with an open-end; please forward it to anyone who might have experience with this or whom might have critical ideas on this topic. My own experience in this is as a home health-aide and growing up with my Grandmother who 'had it')
i was wondering about Alzheimer's disease of late (my Mom continually worries about this as her Mom had it, and friends of hers have it), and i was thinking in the past few months about *what if* scenarios.
i was thinking, what if the label of the disease pushes those who *believe* into a space similar to a voodoo trick? That is, once the doctors have 'diagnosed' it, do we suddenly subordinate so thoroughly that we "give away our powers" of possibly intervening with our human qualities, and thus let the *belief* gain in momentum, cutting off the 'patient' even more, and thereby allowing the symptoms to compound and the disease to actually arise?
My lightly experienced and intuitive "take" on Alzheimer's Disease is that it's a *dis-ease* more (at first) than a disease (the disease part only coming *later* as a symptom); a situation that develops out of privatized/private depression (lack of depth meaning) which *never* has an authentic outlet. People caught in this may be able to have what are called "normal" communications with family and so on, but nothing truly meaningful.
I'm thinking here of my Grandmother. Her husband was "old school" and i don't think he discussed his authentic feelings very deeply with anyone. Yet my Grandmother was a very caring type of person. And she put up with his ways for at least 60 years of their completely monogomous marriage. Towards the end, i wonder, did she become so isolated that she "naturally" began to lose her memories or otherwise "go crazy" in such a way that she began forgetting *everything*? And was there a way we *could have* intervened, had we not been mezmerized by the virtual avalanche of medical reductions we often collectively throw on elders? (i.e. we collectively tend to de-humanize elders, in Euro-centric society, and when they act humanly in response to stuff like being dishonored, we "poo poo" such and tend to label them in ways we wouldn't like if we were in their shoes)
Anyway, what is the history of this 'disease'? And how do people come up with it, and in what setting? (Those institutional settings where human beings take second place to their being scientifically objectified??) I can very much imagine certain very sensitive persons feeling heavily-in-pain (psychologically) as they get older, more afraid (of the impending Unknown), and experiencing the younger people putting them in "boxes" (like, in the meta: 'You're getting old now, so we don't listen to *you* and tend to treat *you* as a bundle of symptoms'). And becoming more and more alienated. Put two and two together, and you see what happens when the most sensitive feel completely isolated from humanity in humane ways.
Then, nurses (working in institutional settings) have seen how doctors are educated to act, and how the instituitonal ways of doing things has a grip on their being human; and i think nurses don't like this, but don't know how to approach it within the institutional setting (am i possibly "warm" at all??)...
So, there's the institutional mind interacting with human beings and there's the popularized notions of our collectivity, projecting, making assumptions, and going along with what the 'reputable' medical establishment tells us.
Could any of this possibly have a way of seeding and then reinforcing such a situation as building such a "dis-ease" (and in symptoms, disease) until such de-humanization (perhaps experienced in successive visits to hospital/doctor/medical literature/institutional mind) actually *becomes* an actual disease???
My intuition says, yes, very possibly!
I wonder what the "most outlandish" medical journal views on this are (anyone know of any?). (To the pros: Have you read any of them of late? What are your favorites? Or, do you as a nurse/home health aide, simply accept your Given role in the 'chain-of-command' of medicine, and *don't* read the scientific literature??)
Give/take care!
i was wondering about Alzheimer's disease of late (my Mom continually worries about this as her Mom had it, and friends of hers have it), and i was thinking in the past few months about *what if* scenarios.
i was thinking, what if the label of the disease pushes those who *believe* into a space similar to a voodoo trick? That is, once the doctors have 'diagnosed' it, do we suddenly subordinate so thoroughly that we "give away our powers" of possibly intervening with our human qualities, and thus let the *belief* gain in momentum, cutting off the 'patient' even more, and thereby allowing the symptoms to compound and the disease to actually arise?
My lightly experienced and intuitive "take" on Alzheimer's Disease is that it's a *dis-ease* more (at first) than a disease (the disease part only coming *later* as a symptom); a situation that develops out of privatized/private depression (lack of depth meaning) which *never* has an authentic outlet. People caught in this may be able to have what are called "normal" communications with family and so on, but nothing truly meaningful.
I'm thinking here of my Grandmother. Her husband was "old school" and i don't think he discussed his authentic feelings very deeply with anyone. Yet my Grandmother was a very caring type of person. And she put up with his ways for at least 60 years of their completely monogomous marriage. Towards the end, i wonder, did she become so isolated that she "naturally" began to lose her memories or otherwise "go crazy" in such a way that she began forgetting *everything*? And was there a way we *could have* intervened, had we not been mezmerized by the virtual avalanche of medical reductions we often collectively throw on elders? (i.e. we collectively tend to de-humanize elders, in Euro-centric society, and when they act humanly in response to stuff like being dishonored, we "poo poo" such and tend to label them in ways we wouldn't like if we were in their shoes)
Anyway, what is the history of this 'disease'? And how do people come up with it, and in what setting? (Those institutional settings where human beings take second place to their being scientifically objectified??) I can very much imagine certain very sensitive persons feeling heavily-in-pain (psychologically) as they get older, more afraid (of the impending Unknown), and experiencing the younger people putting them in "boxes" (like, in the meta: 'You're getting old now, so we don't listen to *you* and tend to treat *you* as a bundle of symptoms'). And becoming more and more alienated. Put two and two together, and you see what happens when the most sensitive feel completely isolated from humanity in humane ways.
Then, nurses (working in institutional settings) have seen how doctors are educated to act, and how the instituitonal ways of doing things has a grip on their being human; and i think nurses don't like this, but don't know how to approach it within the institutional setting (am i possibly "warm" at all??)...
So, there's the institutional mind interacting with human beings and there's the popularized notions of our collectivity, projecting, making assumptions, and going along with what the 'reputable' medical establishment tells us.
Could any of this possibly have a way of seeding and then reinforcing such a situation as building such a "dis-ease" (and in symptoms, disease) until such de-humanization (perhaps experienced in successive visits to hospital/doctor/medical literature/institutional mind) actually *becomes* an actual disease???
My intuition says, yes, very possibly!
I wonder what the "most outlandish" medical journal views on this are (anyone know of any?). (To the pros: Have you read any of them of late? What are your favorites? Or, do you as a nurse/home health aide, simply accept your Given role in the 'chain-of-command' of medicine, and *don't* read the scientific literature??)
Give/take care!
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Re: Alzheimer's Disease as Voodoo?
Sat, March 10, 2007 - 11:59 PMthere are a lot of theories about what causes this disease, if that is what it is and not as you suppose a general dehumanizing of our elders... some theories say there is a gene that causes it... others that it, like depression, is cause by a chemical imbalance... studies have proven that if a person keeps their mind active that the symptoms of the disease are forestalled... brain teasers, puzzles, social activity, reading, writing, art... perhaps some people are predisposed to forget reality because their contacts with the world are lessening... my father's mother, by the time she was on her death bed, had forgotten most of her family, thought i was my sister and believed she was at a hospital or hotel when she was in a nursing home... she was 87 at her death... however she was not, to my knowledge, diagnosed with alzheimers... she was also a mean spirited hateful person... she went to school but never bothered to learn to read well and quit before she made it to junior high... she buried two husbands... gave birth to 14 children 12 of whom she raised to adulthood...never had an original thought... never had a creative idea and spent her time belittling the female of the species... she was a sad bitter old woman and never seemed to be happy... at least to me all of her laughter seemed to be forced and ungenuine...her children visited only at major holidays and rarely thru out the year...with the exception of my father who visited her every sunday... my mother's mother on the other hand kept her right mind until her death at 77... she had what was believed to be a stroke in the early 70's ...although she did not have the paralysis of a single side as in most strokes... she did lose the ability to walk but she was able to move her limbs and there was no loss of use of her facial muscles... no slurring of speach... all of her life she had been active... read voraciously... attended church services... buried her only husband at the age of 40... gave birth to and raised 7 children...ran a business.for a time..had a sense of humor and i never heard her say a cross word about anyone or to anyone in my presence... she seemed to be happy even though she was always brusk and occasionally grumpy...at least half of her children visited her every week and the other half called her every week... my father is afraid he will develope alzheimers as he has a harder time remembering things... at 78 he is still in his right mind and reads voraciously... is active in church... enjoys spending time with his children and grandchildren... he is a taciturn old man... not very happy with himself or others... my mother is 80... she does not read well as she had to quit school in the 7th grade to help her widowed mother take care of the rest of her siblings... but she enjoys movies and television... shopping...traveling...doing jigsaw puzzles... used to do latchhook but took up cross stich about 6 years ago... loves to spend time with children and grandchildren... is generally happy although she was diagnosed with clinical depression some years ago... she also forgets things but is not afraid of alzheimers... she laughs and scoffs at it... still dances if she hears a song she remembers from her girl hood... sings along with the radio or her cd player with her headset on...i expect my parents to come to my house within the next 3 weeks and stay for 2 or 3 weeks when they do... my mother is already looking forward to the fact that i plan to take her to the movies... the one person i know who was diagnosed with alzheimers was my aunt's husband... he was a generally happy man... he liked music and singing... was deeply involved in church... had a great sense of humor... he did however have to deal with my aunt for 60 years... and she is a hard woman to deal with... using these old people as examples ... based on my experience... i think alzheimers is less a voodoo inflicted mental condition as it is a self exile from the world because a person is not happy with the world outside their minds... had my mother's mother lived into her 80's i'm sure she would have retained her right mind and memories ... i also feel that my parents will retain their right minds... if one of them does develope alzheimers i think it will be my father since he is less happy with the world... but i don't see that happening... i think my parents will live at least another 10 years if not more since they are still physically and mentally active... and i think they will keep their right minds because they enjoy the world around them... they are not ready to leave it in any form... my aunt's husband forgot his family but remembered things that were important to him...music... prayer...and his religion... so as to your question of is this disease one we inflict on our elders... perhaps it is if we do not make them happy with the world outside their minds... but mostly i think it is a self inflicted disease... one where the person in case shuts out the rest of the world due to unhappiness...
