The film Poor Things recently reminded me to Flowers to Algernon a lot
Flowers for Algernon (1965) [pdf]
121–130 of 272 posts
Re: Flowers for Algernon (1965) [pdf]
#122My biggest fear. The nightmares I had for years after reading. They returned, years later, when observing Alzheimer's from up close, in family members. No way out, no cure. Memory, reasoning capabilities, character, everything that makes you yourself decline, disappear; you're still breathing, but you're more dead day after day. And then, when you stop being aware of all that... does it make it better? or worse? I do…
Would you prefer to suffer through something like cancer, fully aware of your decline and unable to do anything but with the will to do so? Or just be completely unaware of what is going on but not necessarily in poor health? Dementia is certainly terrible in a unique and disturbing way for the afflicted and people that care about them, but Im not so sure some of the more understandable alternatives would be preferab…
> Or just be completely unaware of what is going on but not necessarily in poor health?
It's not either-or, it's both. It takes time to reach the point where you're "unaware". Before that, you're fully aware of what's happening and that there's no escape. After that point, it will probably get "better" for you, the patient.
But it also gets way, way worse for everyone around you. With cancer, you're still yourself - you die as the person you were. With dementia (or Alzheimer's at least), you die twice, and people around you are left to tend to your corpse, which happens to move and eat (even if you forget to chew and swallow) for years after you're gone.
Re: Flowers for Algernon (1965) [pdf]
#123When creating a business process, designing for resilience in the face of changing staff and resources, can be an objective. Perhaps it should also be prioritized when designing one's own life processes? Consider two elders, one with a long-standing practice of using written notes in their life, and one without. As their memories decline, one compensates with notes, and degrades gracefully. The other, loses life scope far more sharply. And by the time the need becomes pressing, adding such practice becomes difficult. Just something I ran into ~recently.
Re: Flowers for Algernon (1965) [pdf]
#124Makes me wonder if I even know how to read.
Re: Flowers for Algernon (1965) [pdf]
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
Would you prefer to suffer through something like cancer, fully aware of your decline and unable to do anything but with the will to do so? Or just be completely unaware of what is going on but not necessarily in poor health? Dementia is certainly terrible in a unique and disturbing way for the afflicted and people that care about them, but Im not so sure some of the more understandable alternatives would be preferab…
If you're asking what's worse, body dying with a a good mind, or mind dying eg in dementia but good body, the answer is almost 100% the latter being worse. I know someone who had Alzheimer's. Was in excellent physical shape, had biomarkers of someone 20 years younger. Would go for daily walks for decades, consistently did yoga etc. The issue, with late stage Alzheimer's (and possibly dementia in general), is that the…
> It's far from "living with dignity", even if the body is still physically capable.
It would be abhorrent if you understood what was going on, but if you did you wouldn't be in that state. I'm not sure whether in general terms Dementia is as traumatic for the sufferer as the observer who attaches value to a historical person (who for all intents and purposes is gone)
Re: Flowers for Algernon (1965) [pdf]
#126"I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life."
Regardless of one's political opinion of Ronald Reagan, his letter announcing his Alzheimer's diagnosis is relevant and poignant.
https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/reagans/ronald-reagan/reagans-...
Re: Flowers for Algernon (1965) [pdf]
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
I discovered that intelligence is like height. It helps with the ability to reach but effort matters more. I was lazy for twenty years and put effort behind the wrong energy. If I understood risk, consistent effort, and emotions better, I would have retired in my mid twenties.
What would you have needed to understand about risk and emotions to have retired in your mid twenties?
Performing formalized risk assessments can provide you with insights about a risk you're thinking about taking. I think it helped me take the right risks and leave the workforce early.
Emotionally? Just* ignore them and pursue the thing that pays you the most. It's boring and it's unhealthy and it's hard and it's not romantic.
Re: Flowers for Algernon (1965) [pdf]
#128This is one of my favorite books to think about recently.
Technology augments us and removes our ability to do things any other way. This can be good, but it can also be bad. AI will be the drug that turns society into Charlie. I hope it will last.
Re: Flowers for Algernon (1965) [pdf]
#129As someone prescribed a medication that affects the mind, I remember this book haunting me for some time after reading it in grade school. Skimming it again today, that same fear returns. Dementia and/or Parkinsons will eventually take my mind from me. After having two grandparents pass away in the last year, I've come to terms with that part. But when? Will it be worse for me?
Re: Flowers for Algernon (1965) [pdf]
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you're asking what's worse, body dying with a a good mind, or mind dying eg in dementia but good body, the answer is almost 100% the latter being worse. I know someone who had Alzheimer's. Was in excellent physical shape, had biomarkers of someone 20 years younger. Would go for daily walks for decades, consistently did yoga etc. The issue, with late stage Alzheimer's (and possibly dementia in general), is that the…
> It's far from "living with dignity", even if the body is still physically capable. It would be abhorrent if you understood what was going on, but if you did you wouldn't be in that state. I'm not sure whether in general terms Dementia is as traumatic for the sufferer as the observer who attaches value to a historical person (who for all intents and purposes is gone )
There's often a long overlap, though. Both my grandmothers died with Alzheimers. We'lll never know how long they knew, but in retrospect it's clear they knew of the decline for quite some time.
My mothers mother avoided hospital until it became too apparent to everyone around here that my grandfather tricker her. She'd make jokes about her failing memory for years, and while some of it might have been genuine, in retrospect odds are she noticed it was getting bad and was obscuring it with humour.
For years afterwards, she would forget conversations partway through them, but clearly be aware that something was wrong. E.g. for some time she recognised me, but would wonder when I got there and how long I'd been there, and occasionally my name and who I was would slip, but she was otherwise lucid enough to understand that this was not normal.
My dads mother managed to hide the decline until one day my grandfather was going in to hospital for a minor operation, and she refused to get out of bed. The last time I saw her before that, she seemed lucid and held a conversation. I never had another conversation with her, though she lived another decade - she went non-verbal almost overnight, but it was clear this wasn't some sudden physical change; she'd held it together until then, and gave up. It might be her cognitive decline was faster, and less cruel, but we really don't know if it was, or if she just managed to conceal it until the very brink.
How much after that she managed to hold on to enough to recognise any of us - including her husband we don't know, because shortly after she went non-verbal she mostly stopped moving.
But one of the cruelest parts of Alzheimers is what it does for those left behind - my grandfather spent a whole decade in his 70's and 80's walking to the nursing home, sitting with her all day, every day, then walking home, after she was for all intents and purposes gone.