There are a lot of things someone with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease might do. Here are a few. Mr. Q has all these problems to some extent. Sometimes these tendencies are more noticeable or severe than other times. The various medicines that a person might be taken can also contribute to these problems.

Incontinent (Incontinency) is the lack of voluntary control of excretory functions. Incontinence occurs mostly in adults but can also occur in teens. Incontinence is usually referred to in urine when leakage occurs that cannot be helped or stopped. There are two different types of urinary incontinence: stress and urge.

Incontinence of stress is when leakage occurs during laughter, sneezing, coughing, etc. Usually, those with stress incontinence do not recognize it as a medical condition.

Incontinence of urge, however, is when you feel the sudden need to urinate and cannot help but have an accident. This is the type of incontinence that occurs with Mr. Q and those with dementia or Alzheimer’s.

Incontinency is not directly caused by either dementia or Alzheimer conditions, but could be the result of poor or inconsistent brain functions, poor memory, or other problems associated with the person’s subnormal state of mind or condition.

Inability to read is the obvious condition of the person being unable to read. This is of course assuming the person did know how to read before they had dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

Inability to write is the obvious condition of the person being unable to write. This is of course assuming the person did know how to write before they had dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

Inability to dress themselves is the obvious condition of the person being unable to dress themselves. They may have trouble putting on a shirt, blouse, pants, skirt, jacket, socks or shoes. You could extend this to cases where the person over does it and, for example, puts on two hats or three t-shirts, etc. It is obvious they are not dressing like a normal person.

Wandering is where the person walks around a lot, all over everywhere, usually with no valid reason for doing so. For example Mr. Q wouldn’t sit still more than a very few minutes before he would get up and start walking - walking anywhere and everywhere.

Sundown syndrome or effect is an observation that some people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and dementia tend to have less severe symptoms in the morning and early afternoon but worse symptoms in the evening and at night.

These are but a few of the potential problems that may be present in someone who has dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. Unfortunately these problems may not stop regardless of what you do. There are medicines to help the mind function somewhat better, but there are side effects that may occur using them. Also I was told by two doctors that the drugs used to help control someone with dementia or Alzheimer’s usually lose their effectiveness after about three months of taking them.

A persons condition may change and reduce the effects of any of these problems, but it might be just a temporary change. For example Mr. Q was a wanderingholic (I made up this word) and wandered oh so very much when he first came to live with us. Now almost four months later, his wandering is usually (there are significant exceptions) much less and we can relax our guard or walk in another room without having to run back out 30 seconds later to see him wandering somewhere.