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Angelshelpme2 Asked December 2020

Why do dementia patients think the people on TV are talking to them?

JoAnn29 Dec 2020
Because it becomes part of their reality. The brain no longer can distinguish between TV, Dreams and everyday reality. Its all one and the same. My Mom told me the doctor on TV needed to talk to me. It was Dick VanDyke on Diagnosis Murder. When there were fires and explosions on TV, she would get upset because she thought they were happening to my house. They aren't telling stories or lying, they actually think they are experiencing this stuff. Since they cannot be reasoned with, you just need to go along with it.

AnnReid Dec 2020
Unfortunately, diagnosis of dementia AND hearing loss is a double whammy of not being able to INTERPRET what they are hearing, it also getting a distorted input of what they hear coming from the voices from the TV.

We as caregivers need to become our own teachers and learn all we can about the symptoms of dementia, and the difficult/impossible difficulties in how to deal with the increasing severity of the symptoms.

It doesn’t make any difference to you or to your mother whether she thinks the people on the TV are talking to her or not, does it?

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gladimhere Dec 2020
Of course they are. Do not try to correct or explain. You will always lose or go down trying. Why argue about something that really doesn't matter?

freqflyer Dec 2020
Angelshelpme2, please remember that a brain of a dementia patient is broken.

For more information on Dementia, go to the blue/green bar at the top of the page and click on CARE TOPICS. There is a store house of information there that should help you as you deal with this with your Mom.

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