Alzheimer's Disease Support Group

My husband does this and he too has regular hiding spots- I just ask him if he looked here or there and don't really address the 'stolen' aspect. Once he has what he was looking for he forgets that he had accused anyone of stealing. It is kind of humorous in a way because he hides things of no particular value, like his Pepsi and BBQ chips. He will take me aside sometimes and say in a quiet voice, "Can you talk to (our daughter) about not drinking my Pepsi?" My kids don't like Pepsi and never drink it but I humor him and say, ok.

My husband is in about Stage 6 and his doctor recently started him on Aricept. What a disaster. It MAY have helped his cognition slightly, but it brought back all the bad behavior we had already gone through. The hiding of things, people stealing from him, anger and being obstinate. It turned him into the Energinzer Bunny at 9-10 at night he was ready to go and I was exhausted. I feel it was 3-4 Stages too late. I stopped it. I don't want either one of us to prolong this disease another 2-3 years. Like Deborah48 says just humor her and tell her what she wants to hear because she won't remember it anyway

REDIRECT REDIRECT REDIRECT. Think of these conversations as a bus ride w/ you as the driver. When your Mom reaches over and jerks the wheel to the right--you can slowly but steadily redirect it back to the center position. I like what what deborah48 said, "don't address the stolen" part of the statement. Your Mom will forget about it anyway...until the next time. :-( I hope she isn't staying alone. When my Mom was like this...she was obviously very fearful. She was clueless about 'time' at this point too. So if I said for example, "I'm going to the store and I'll be back in 30 minutes"----Mom would look afraid when I got back and say "You have been gone a long time, where have you been?"

thank you all for your advice. Refocusing the conversation on this topic is quite difficult - she is alert enough to see what I'm doing but I often can fairly quickly move to another topic and, you're right, she often forgets. DelS- I hadn't considered that the Aricept may be causing the paranoia and hiding. She was paranoid for several years but it had gone away lately and has emerged with a vengence at about the same time we started Aricept. I want her to be as comfortable as possible - the short term memory loss troubles her greatly and makes her unable to do many things but I think the depression and paranoia make her feel worse. (And after two weeks, there is no indication that the Aricept has improved cognition) We go back to the doctor in less than two weeks, perhaps he can recommend what is best. Since there is no way of stopping this disease, it seems to me whatever makes her most content should be our goal.

My mom is in not sure what stage. She is progressing quickly at this point and is in the hiding and putting everything aay stage. Short term memory is next to nil now and she is starting to think that she is not home when she is. Has no sense of time span and becomes upset when you try to tell her anything. She is on Excelon and Namenda twice a day, but I don't know that any of these meds do much good.I think the disease is what it is.

Yesterday I was making a little fountain in my garden and my husband was 'helping' me (I think you all know what I mean by helping, LOL). I had put all my supplies in a bucket including a roll of pump hose. He said can I get you anything? Yes, hand me that roll of pump hose. Well, it was no where to be found. I KNEW I had just put it there! I looked everywhere for it. I KNEW it had been in that bucket just minutes ago. My husband also starts helping me look. Twenty minutes I found it on his nightstand. Why on earth he would have taken it and put it on his night is something no one will understand but he claimed no knowledge and was just as surprised as me to find it there. Oh well, that's life with ALZ.

I wonder why it is that everything has to be moved. No matter what I put down it isn't there when I come back. Things are never lost, always stolen. I had to search our garden shed the other day because someone must have stolen our sprinker ($5.00 at Walmart). I just told him how lucky we were that they didn't take our new lawn mower. I'll probably find the sprinkler in some logical place like the dog house.

sometimes you just have to laugh about it...............

Thanks for all the new replies. They came at just the right time. My mom said she was too ill to watch my son's match with me this morning. Now that we returned, she is depressed and very upset with us that she was so looking forward to coming with us and we left her behind. Of course, she does not remember it was her choice and I won't even try to convince her. I hate to see her this depressed- she realy does want to die. I also know her blood sugar is low which esculates the depression but (I think to spite me) she won't eat. If I can get her to eat, this will likely last 3 - 4 hours,if not it will be more than a day. How long do these stubborn/depressed/paranoid states last for your loved ones? - and will they last longer as the disease progresses?

I don't think anyone can put a timetable on any of these behaviors. You can be sure of one thing though and that is as they fade away they will be replaced by something else as long as they can walk and talk. The stubborness may be carried over from their old personality. My husband was stubborn before and he still is. It just doesn't work as well for him now. I just do what needs to be done and he forgets he is mad. Sometimes you can get the poor memory to work for you.