My grandad had dementia before he died and he seemed tormented, afraid and angry most of the time. I don't think living with dementia is a positive experience for people who suffer through it

Agreed. A ‘beautiful simplified present’ is not a universal phenomenology of dementia. It is instead frequently an experience of fear and dread and re-living ancient memories; being stuck in a cycle of believing you are still in a past moment.

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No, they're in their own world as they can't put together one present moment to the next and are mostly living in fragments of the past.

"simplified present" are they trying to glorify being blissfully ignorance? Because that's not a good thing.

🤣 simplified present where you can’t remember how to get home. great thesis!

You know somebody is a pretentious dork when they try to force beauty into dementia.

More likely a sad depressing life, locked in an assisted living home which becomes your prison.

There's no substance to this article.

The argument is improbable ("becoming paraplegic takes away mobility, physical expression, even self identity, but something beautiful can remain - the ability to be still") and the article doesn't do any work to make a case for it.

The title is just asserted as the conclusion.

Agreed. When you have to watch people you love slowly disappear into the permanent fog of memory loss, you find yourself with a sudden urge to punch the author of this article, because they clearly have the empathy of a brick and no knowledge of the thing they're trying to describe. Watching my FIL forget who his only son was is one of the most heartbreaking occurrences of my entire 52 years. There was no joy, no beauty, just pain and anger and fear. And I'm gonna stop now because the more I dwell on this the more I want to track down that author and beat the stupid out of them.

Full blown dementia and short term memory loss are not the same thing!

It would be more reasonable if it was blissful ignorance, but dementia often means a continuous state of total confusion and fear in relation to both outside factors that you no longer comprehend, and your fading personality. It is like a slow, degenerating process of losing personhood. Absolutely terrifying way to go out.

I'm aware, one of the few volunteer experiences I have was in helping those with Alzheimer's and Dementia. I did things for the organization on their tech side so they could do what they needed to do, did that for a few months - eventually I finished up the few projects they had and went back to college at the time. Was sad learning how it affects people, seeing those who work side by side with those who have the affliction and their stories.

I was mostly getting that the "simplified present" is used as if it is a tender mercy to think of it that way, it is only for our own benefit would we describe the horror of losing your mind this way. I'm a little shocked that whoever wrote this is in a harsh state of denial - or wants to put spin on the affliction cause it is horrendous. I could hardly think of something worse.

I understand what you are saying. The constant need to spin bad things in a way that makes them look good is a weird thing some people engage in, I would suppose either because of emotional related reasons or maybe for the need to seem original in the eyes of the public.

I’ve always said this

I’ve known people with dementia to be very fluid and even willing to make art almost like a child. She dies within 6 months after that. It was such a pleasure to meet her. Maybe those more prone to their ego are tormented in the moments they need to know who they are and others who never really knew or didn’t have a strong idea of their self slip more pleasantly into the moment like the lady I met.

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Agreed. Dementia has wrecked havoc on my grandfather, as well as my grandmother whom still looks after him with very little outside assistance. This author is a disgusting piece of garbage.