Copyright 2004 by http://www.organicgreens.us and Loring Windblad. This article may be freely copied and used on other web sites only if it is copied complete with all links and text intact and unchanged except for minor improvements such as misspellings and typos. Dementia! A term to reckon with. Dementia – a horrible disease, not something we want have ourselves and for which we pity others who do have it. Dementia – demented, frightening, a person with a mental disease that conjures up all sorts of frightening mental images. Even
relatively benign, “children’s” book Harry Potter deals with Dementors; beings who suck soul out of body and twist and warp mind till there’s nothing but an empty shell left.
Dementia! My Oxford English Dictionary defines it thusly:
“A mental illness in which there is a loss of reasoning power.” Further: “Dementia prae-cox: schizophrenia.”
A more modern definition probably goes thusly:
“Dementia: A mental condition in which there is a loss of reasoning power.”
So once we look at “dementia” in real terms it no longer seems quite so frightening. But how does it happen, when does it happen, and just who gets it? And lets keep in mind that this is “a condition” and not “a disease” or “mental illness”. As such it could respond to aromatherapy, diet or other medical treatment.
Its onset can be result of an injury, as a reaction to a medication of some sort or simply normal deterioration of old age – which we used to call senility. Hmmmmm – there’s another word worthy of checking out.
Senility: my Oxford English Dictionary defines it thusly:
“Senile: suffering from bodily or mental weakness because of old age. 2: (of illness, etc.) characteristic of elderly people.” Hmmmmmm, they do sound a lot alike, don’t they?
The underlying cause is likely a chemical imbalance in brain which basically has no effect unless and until triggered by an outside influence. That outside influence could be as simple as deterioration from old age, or as traumatic as an unexpected injury, or from an outside and very unrelated cause.
Here’re three examples from my own personal, family observations:
My Aunty Mame: a wonderful woman but older she got more she seemed to not only forget things but more she seemed to become disoriented to her surroundings. She lived into her 90’s and last few years were frightening to us all. The degeneration of old age.
My sister-in-law: A wonderful woman, mother of three devoted sons, wife to same man for more than 60 years, as she got older she needed surgery for some minor conditions and older she got worse her reaction to anesthetic. She would come out of anesthesia and “see things” – pots, dishes, silverware – and try to pick them out of air and put them where they belonged. She was dumfounded when she couldn’t pick them up – “they’re right there but I can’t get hold of them”! The older she got worse her reaction to anesthesia. A reaction to a drug or medication.
