Alzheimer's Movie Analysis

Caregivers Alzheimer’s is a degenerative brain disease and is the most common form of dementia. It can be caused by the accumulation of plaques or neurofibrillary tangles, and can be gotten genetically from a mutation on the ApoE gene. The disease progresses differently in people and affects their memory, thinking and behavior, but by the time they reach the early stage they generally need help from caregivers. Alzheimer’s cannot be treated but if diagnosed early, the patient can explore treatment options to relief the symptoms and also maintain the level of independence longer. The documentary follows the life of 5 families, each having an Alzheimer’s patient and …show more content…
He is able to maintain his independence by taking medicine. Chuck and his wife Marianne try to live in the moment and enjoy the time they have together. Then we have Jude and Daphne, Daphne was an astrophysicist who loved to cook but is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. She has problems with her numbers and is unable to do the things she loved to do anymore and depends on her wife Jude. They both lived in denial and had their hopes up any time Daphne felt better. Jude had a hard time coping during Daphne’s illness and so she joined a support group for comfort. Unfortunately Daphne died and Jude is having to start all over agin. Then there is Nacho and his son Mike. At the beginning Mike thought he will be able to take care of his dad by himself forever, but later realized it was very difficult. His girlfriend moved out since his dad’s presence put a strain on their relationship. Mike took his dad everywhere at the beginning but realized his dad started drifting and preferred to be at home. His dad got worst to the point where he had to put him in a …show more content…
The documentary definitely shed lights on many things that I didn’t know. Firstly, people don’t send loved ones to homes because they do not love them. It gets very difficult and frustrating having to watch someone who once had so much life drastically change for the worst. I realized that there is a greater negative impact on the care givers life than the actual patient’s which is why some caregivers die before the patients. It upsets both the care givers physical and emotional health. It even goes as far as ending friendships and relationships as it did in the case with Mike and his girlfriend from the documentary. The difficulties vary in relation to the stage in which the patient is but most of the time, the inability to communicate or the change in mood or behavior of the patient makes it very hard. Most of the symptoms such as the inability to sleep, disorientation when awake, peeing in the kitchen or becoming aggressive are situations that cannot be handled by ones self and often requires constant attention which is hard to provide given that the caregivers have other things to do such as work. Taking care of and Alzheimer’s patient can also be expensive to the care givers. In addition ,simple things such as having a discussion become very