Podcast, Mere Shadows? - Living With Early-Stage Alzheimer's Disease

Main Category: Alzheimer's / Dementia
Article Date: 24 Oct 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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Podcast Summary:

Within populist culture, Alzheimer's disease has been described as a death that leaves the body behind, death in slow motion, or becoming a mere shadow of one's self.

However, people living with Alzheimer's disease who have access to the right resources can continue to work out a way of living with the disease. For IPP-SHR podcasts, Hamish Holewa spoke to Associate Professor Hazel MacRae, about her article that explores participants' experiences of living with early stage Alzheimer's disease.

Participants reported strategies such as, social comparison, humour, hope, instrument telling and normalisation, as methods of coping with the disease. Additionally, medicialising the disease, which places the disease beyond the control of the individual, is another successful strategy used by people living with early stage Alzheimer's.

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CQU University
International Program of Psycho-Social Health Research
http://www.cqu.edu.au