dementia and PTSD

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Since my mother has begun to suffer from dementia, she has been constantly worried that the place is on fire.

We couldn't figure out why, until I remembered her telling me that when she was a small child the cabin she and her family were living in caught on fire, and she had to help get the kids.

which has me wondering if there is a connection between dementia and PTSD. And whether I'm going to be reliving my rapes if I get dementia as well ...

Comments

Well...

It's not always that you go to the bad things, rather that you go to the most vivid or important memories. I've known people in my life that have gotten stuck in the good times in their lives. A relative who had outlived his wife by a quarter century got stuck thinking that he was before he lost her, and he would rationalize that she was at sewing club, or doing the shopping to explain her absence. He would recognize his kids, but at the age they were then.