What I Wish People Knew About Dementia: From Someone Who Knows

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If I’m with my daughters, people will speak to them instead of me, but my daughters are very good at saying, ‘Well why don’t you ask mum?’ When people hear the word ‘dementia’ they forget there’s a beginning and automatically think of the end. There’s so much life still to be lived, albeit differently and with lots of support. I always tell people they should never dwell on what they can’t do; I can’t drive or cook or do numerous other things, but there are lots of other things I can do, so I concentrate on those.” How did the idea for writing a book come about?

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Revelatory . . . There are many books about dementia that focus on its biology, its clinical subtypes, its social dimension, its effect on carers and loved ones. But there are few memoirs written by the people with dementia themselves. Mitchell's joins a burgeoning literature of medical memoirs that, like the finest travel writing or reportage, transport the reader to another world that they may or may not visit one day When Wendy Mitchell was diagnosed with young-onset dementia at the age of fifty-eight, her brain was overwhelmed with images of the last stages of the disease - those familiar tropes, shortcuts and clichés that we are fed by the media, or even our own health professionals.

Standing on the top of an aeroplane and going in the sky and turning upside down - that sounds wonderful."How could I give a book less than five stars when it is about the lived experience of someone with dementia? To say ‘the book could be better’ would be like saying ‘you could be leading your life better’. Impossible. For someone with dementia to apply themselves with such determination to produce any book let alone this fantastic book, is incredible. Though it is sad that the author, Wendy Mitchell has the condition, it is in having the condition and how she has responded to it that Wendy has produced her life’s work. Wendy’s life has been more than worthwhile because of the way she has helped others understand dementia. Another 2019 French study found that when using odour to enhance recall, people living with Alzheimer’s were able to retrieve a higher number and more specific recent memories, as well as those relating to their childhoods and adult lives.” Dementia together magazine is for all Alzheimer’s Society supporters and anyone affected by the condition. When dementia is really giving me a hard time, I'll ask my younger self what would you do? Because I know how strong she was, I know how organised she was, and I know how resilient she was. And that just helps me to cope with the bad moments."