Soul-Sucking Madness

I had such high hopes for this blog when I began writing it. I was going to change the Alzheimer's cycle of hopelessness and sorrow with laughter, wisdom, and clever anecdotes of problem solving. It was going to mirror my once very active screenwriting blog by creating a regular following of  readers that I would be devoted to. I would help them! I would share my rapidly accumulating knowledge of aging parent issues and prevent each and every one of them from falling into the pits I had tumbled into and from slamming into the same brick walls I had.

Man, was I naive.

You see, what I didn't realize was that (1) I didn't know anything yet (2) I would be wholly unable to write with both arms mired in emotional quicksand and (3) I would be so sick of other people's Alzheimer's info, testimonials, blogs, suggestions, crowd-funding pages, and events designed to "raise awareness" (as if we aren't aware), that I couldn't stomach the thought of inflicting more verbiage about Alzheimer's on people who are already inundated with conflicting information from every Alzheimer's source in their live from the internet to doctors, lawyers, the Department of Aging and Disability, Alzheimer's foundations, nursing homes, social security, insurance companies, and even family members.

It's exhausting and a huge part of the soul-sucking madness that surrounds the life of anyone who loves somebody with Alzheimer's.

But, the more I answer questions about Alzheimer's on Quora, the more I realize there are people out there who don't need another scientific answer. They just need practical day to day responses from people who have been there instead of carefully worded explanations by doctors who want to avoid potential medical malpractice lawsuits and foundations trying to be all things to all people affected by Alzheimer's. That's not helpful at all.

We all need help.

Some days, I visit my mother and spend the rest of the day in bed. It's a daily battle with depression which I'll talk about in another post. Combating that depression is a way of life because every day that I visit my mother, I live through her death. Yet she lives. That, too, is soul-sucking madness. Thankfully, I have a strong support system that holds my sanity accountable. That, too, I'll talk about a little later.

So, let's use this blog to talk about Alzheimer's from a practical place and leave the scientific questions for Google.