Reflective Essay: My Personal Experience With Dementia

“Difficult, depressing, and tragic” are a few of the descriptions generally associated with illness. Those who suffer from dementia, especially, undergo a realm of these characterizations. With this adversity in mind, most people generate a basic understanding based on education rather than personal experience. It is this preconception that can prevent us from gaining a true insight of one’s reality. I have to admit, when I began working with a woman who has dementia, I coined a large sum of these concepts with the job entitlement. The only experience I had working with elderly was that of a volunteer in a nursing home during my premature, high school years –though I did not meet anyone with a condition like dementia. So I did my research

This is the obvious difference I found between my former self and who I am now. I am able to empathize and show benevolence. Sympathy is a surface-level comprehension and so this brings up a lot of questions from outsiders; along the lines of “how can you be patient with someone who can’t even remember your name?”, “isn’t it emotionally straining?”, or “aren’t you tired of it?”. Yes, in the beginning I felt like all my efforts would go to waste because even if I were to fix an issue, no one would know, and because of her condition, it would come up again. For this reason, I took a mental step back, and surely enough, I was able to come to appreciate these struggles to allow myself to grow as a person. I cannot confidently say I am in the same place as her son, who truly experienced Pamuk’s definition of “hüzün”. To my understanding of what she may have been like in the past, he is suffering a great loss. However, I can see how he genuinely enjoys her company, whether it be remiscing through old travels or something as simple as reading the morning paper. I am certain he must be sad, but he holds a much deeper admiration for her that I have not yet