What is she feeling....experiencing?

After rereading John Zeisel's book I'm Still Here, I am committed to making a difference for the person with Alzheimer's disease or related dementia by giving a platform for them to speak about their 'new life' with Alzheimer's. My last 2 blogs addressed the stigma that must be disspelled in order to hear them.
For 13 years my company StilMee Alzheimer coaching has served family caregivers to help ease the caregiving journey. Thirteen years ago the person with the disease was thought to be unable to grasp the meaning of what was happening to them. The fact of the diagnosis was generally hidden, or minimized by families, giving little room to hearing what the person with the disease was experiencing. Over the years I and my wonderful coaches have learned that the journey is a partnership with the caregiver, empowering the care recipient to take charge of his life to the extent safely possible. We've designed many ways to do that and caregivers have found success.
A new trend, and not soon enough, is to give meaning to life with Alzheimer's. Zeisel addresses this in his book as hopefully I was able to accomplish in my book Matters of the Mind...and the Heart and my soon to be released E-book,  New trends in Alzheimer Care; Finding the Spirit Within. We are hearing from people with the disease more and more that they want a place to discuss what life with Alzheimer's is for them.
This platform is necessary to start disspelling the myths and stigma of many diseases, not just Alzheimer's. People with mental illness are gravely misunderstood as are those with autism and other 'thinking' disorders that change behavior. Much of the behavior I see in mental health work is an attempt to get back control of life. We need to strive to see the person first; to appreciate the strengths, the successes, in order to help the person recover. The recovery model says people can find satisfaction and meaning in life with a disease that may be limiting but doesn't count them out.