Dementia makes easy seem hard … a PhD epidemiologist with dementia explains

[00:00:00]Have you ever wondered what it feels like to have mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia?

[00:00:06]So, here's an example. Yesterday, I went to a spa and got a skin care plan that has all of the products in orange down the middle. And the way she gave me the prescription, so to speak, is on the top left there's a column for AM and on the top right there's a column for PM and she scribbled in in orange when I'm supposed to do each of these. Simple enough, right?

[00:00:31]In my regular days, that's something that [laughter] I could do and look at, probably memorize, and never have to think about again. Now, when my brain looks at this, here's how I see it. I go to the first one and I see gentle cleanser and I look to the left and I think, oh wait, okay, yes, left left is morning. Yes, yes, look at the top left.

[00:00:50]Okay, it's boxed in in orange. Oh, What Which step was that? Oh, the gentle cleanser. Okay, so was that morning or or afternoon? Oh, morning, morning, okay. Orange box, orange box.

[00:01:03]Wait, what's this over here?

[00:01:05]Oh, okay. So, and then for 1 minute each two times. Okay, which one So, then that's how my brain works for the whole rest of the time. So, like as I go down to the next one, the exfoliating polish, my brain has to interpret that there's a check mark in the PM box and not in the AM box and what PM means and which line it belongs to because my brain is still stuck on gentle cleanser. And I know it doesn't make much sense if you're not living this and I could never have understood this prior to it happening in my own brain. And by making this video, I am not asking for suggestions of how I can make this easier for myself. I actually already rewrote a new chart in a way that's easier for my brain to understand. So, please don't put in the comments suggestions of how I can cope with this. I'm showing you simply so that you understand what it's like neurologically inside of my brain.