Do Alzheimer's patients sometimes confuse fiction with reality?

My FIL has vascular dementia and had very active delusions. He could not watch the old movie channel because he thought the war movies were real and happening now. He was often frightened by what he thought was happening.

Yes, without question~my mother isn't even formally dxed with dementia and she will put 1 and 1 together and get 7---it's totally random and seems to have no rhyme or reason to it.

The brain just fires off whatever it wants and sometimes words come falling out.

I try a little to bring her back to 'norm' but mostly, it isn't worth the headache.

Yes, Yes, and Y-E-S!!!!! Their whole thinking process is fictional and delusional. They're in another world. It's very difficult to deal with, I know. No sense to argue or try to correct. Just go along................re-direct..........and always be respectful........you'll like your own self a lot better for doing so! It's just a sad disease.

You should learn more about dementia so you are aware of the symptoms you will see in your LO.

Oh yes! Old memories, new input from TV, imagination, dreams, mixed & served up.

Sometimes if you find an old memory in the story, you can reminesce over a pleasant time. Like when 90+ yr olds say they need to get home now - before the children get home from school.

Absolutely! The key is to go along with their delusions. You cannot reason, explain or tell them differently. Best action is no action or disagreement it will only raise their level of agitation.

You cannot teach or reason with dementia.

Yes, they can have delusions (false beliefs) as a symptom. A web search on delusions and hallucinations yields a lot of info.

In my mom's case, it is totally random.  She confuses things that happened 40 years ago, she confuses things on TV with reality, etc.