Are dementia patients aware of their condition?
Memory loss and feeling confused are ordinarily light in the initial phases. The person undergoing dementia may be conscious of the changes and feel frustrated. Some of these include finding it difficult to remember recent happenings, making decisions, or analyzing things said by others.
In progressive phases, memory loss gets considerably more critical. For instance, they may face challenges recognizing family members, forgetting family relationships or their name, and having difficulty finding a home location or passage of time. They may forget the usages of some typical items like pens or knives.
These are the changes that family members or caregivers find most disturbing and heartbreaking. As the disorder progresses, they may lose the ability of self-awareness and will not have the ability to realize ‘what they want (self-intention) and ‘what they want to do’ (self-desire) and ‘what they are doing’ (self-situation).
Initially, yes, although they most likely have not been diagnosed at that point. Forgetfulness is a hallmark of the disease, and those with early-stage Alzheimers are very good at compensating for what they know they’re forgetting. They might not realize they have it as they can justify their behaviour by saying, “Oh, I’m just getting old and forgetful.”
They know enough to be vague when answering questions, though. They know enough to hide things. Some understand to write things down as they are aware of the fact that they’ll forget. The complication comes when dementia starts to affect work performance or when they forget how to get somewhere familiar. It gets them angry and frustrated, even if they can’t put their finger on the reason. That being said, Alzheimer’s, while progressive, does not progress in a straight line. In the later stages, the person may not be lucid enough to be aware of the passage of time or of what’s going on around them, so by then, they won’t be mindful of their Alzheimer’s at all.