Dementia

What do you do when somebody you know and love has early dementia?  I'm seeing this happen with family and friends.  What's worse, the person who has the dementia is in complete denial and believes they are of totally sound mind and it's everybody else who is out to get them and lock them away in a home. 

One case involves a woman I have known through work for 27 years.  She was always a bit on the "ditzy" side, but now her adult son has to watch over her constantly as she left the garden hose on and flooded the downstairs office in about 3 inches of water.  She also believes that the gardener is planning on harming her (he has been an employee for 15 years). She will also take the opposite stance on whatever the subject matter may be just because.  She also fails to remember things and is quite fragile physically.  In the past year she has been in three automobile accidents, but refuses to give up driving.  Of course, she thinks she is totally fine.  Her own immediate family beg to differ, but don't even THINK about disagreeing with Mom The Matriarch.

The other case involves a friend.  She was one of the first friends I made when I moved to California almost 30 years ago.  She was always a bit on the high-maintenance side (just ask her husband) but lately she says and does things that are just, well, cooky.  She will berate wait staff if her food isn't an exact temperature.  She says really strange things to her son.  She will give strong, personal opinions to complete strangers.  There have been more than a few times I have given the target of her unsolicited opinion an apologetic smile and put a swirling, index finger-to-head to silently signal she's not in her right mind.  Again, my friend thinks she is PERFECTLY NORMAL AND HER BEHAVIOR PERFECTLY ACCEPTABLE.  She gets defense and angry if anybody gently indicates otherwise.

I think it was Voltaire who said that the our world is an insane asylum for the rest of the universe.