“Why does my mom thinks that I’m her mother?”
“My husband asks me what time it is every 2 minutes…he’s driving me crazy!”
“When I saw my grandmother over the holidays she was dressed in just a summer gown and robe…but it was really cold!”
These are examples of disorientation.
It’s pretty common for people living with symptoms of dementia to feel disoriented, misaligned with reality. The thing is, even if you recognize her assumptions are incorrect, it’s often better to NOT correct someone with symptoms of dementia.
![Grandfather](https://mysimplec.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/86517709.jpg?w=200&h=300)
For example, when my grandfather recently thought I was my mother, I didn’t correct him. I never do. Somehow he still remembers a lot of the important things: my personality, my passion for design, my hobbies, my travels with my grandmother…. But he’ll call my grandmother “your mother” while singing her praises for being so strong, so kind, so witty. In that situation, it couldn’t matter less what name he uses for me.
But my other grandfather, had no idea who I was for years. It wasn’t just forgetting my name; I think he’d forgotten himself. That was probably when I first learned the fine line between “identifying” (Hi, Papa! It’s Jennie Lynn, your granddaughter!) and “correcting” (No, you’re not in Alabama, you live in Washington DC now).
Both of these examples are pretty tame, but you get my point: often, not correcting someone can be better than correcting him.
Practically, what does that mean? How should I handle it instead? When should I “correct” her and when should I just let it go?
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