Confused Thinking

Confusion within reality - a bit oxymoronic?
Keys misplaced with frantic searches ensuing.
Appointment times forgotten or double booked with attendant embarrassment.
Timing off, but fixed with double timing to cover all bases.
At the end of the day, all is in place even if not quite perfectly.
Frustration in the moment, laughter in retelling of the stories

Confusion within dementia is quite another story.
The ‘real’ world is full of fragmented memories.
Urges borne of beliefs in this 'to do' society
to get groceries, 
get on with farming,
go to work, 
to church, 
to act normally within the bounds of dementia
while the bounds of reality are locked doors and tight supervision.

Problem solving skills are fragmented and persistent.

‘Escape’ into the hostile, real world happens, leaving us all
to wonder and to scratch our heads about more locks, better locks,
to provide safer protection and care for our loved ones.

In casual conversation, fears that ‘it will only get worse’ bubble up and are quickly dismissed with nervous laughter.
This fear of personal dementia dives much, much deeper.
Each research item in the news about vast numbers of aging does nothing to assuage those fears.
The forgotten keys, appointment times and double booking are not necessarily signs of impending dementia - they may be just too close to our fears.

“It is coincidence, I decide, and I am getting old and batty, 

thinking the universe revolves around me.”

~ Katherine Dunn, Geek Love