Daily Dementia Dose: Lack of Awareness, Denial and Anosognosia

Last week, I saw a patient and he had a hip replacement. He kept on dislocating it.

We instructed him, no bending at more than 90 degrees, no twisting, no crossing.

He doesn’t have a diagnosis of dementia. In my personal opinion, he’s probably on the early stages of denial.

The word Anosognosia, means lack of awareness.

They don’t know. They don’t know how to follow precautions, they don’t know how to follow basic instructions. They will deny that it’s their fault when it’s actually their fault.

That’s the early stages of dementia.

They deny stuff.

That’s the first two stages, denial and anger.

He was so mad at me that day that it’s not his fault that he is dislocating his hip.

If you have a family member that’s like that, they are always in denial, they are always angry at you, that’s what you call anosognosia or lack of awareness.

If that’s the case, early diagnosis is key, you have to get out and have your loved ones diagnosed.

Identify what is the root cause of the problem and in doing so you will prevent it from getting worse.

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