Dementia, Christmas, Depression
Episode # 37
Show Notes
We’ve talked about not decorating for Christmas because of mom’s dementia. But what we haven’t talked about. Is that not decorating for Christmas, makes the house and makes the time feel like it’s not Christmas time.
When you don’t decorate for Christmas, it doesn’t feel much like Christmas. It just feels like another day of the year. It doesn’t even feel like a special day. Now you don’t have all of the work decorating the tree decorating the house. But when you don’t put the work in to make it feel like it’s Christmas you don’t feel much like being in the Christmas mood.
The family no longer has what I would consider to be kids in the family. The youngest one in the family right now is 17 years old. When they get to be that age, you don’t really know what to get them for Christmas. If you get them close you don’t know what size to get them, you’re not really sure what kind of music they listen to, and today’s kids seem to be more into electronics than not. So if you don’t know what size they were you don’t know what music they listen to when you’re not sure what kind of electronics there into, what you get them?
I know when I was a kid. All I don’t know, 13, 14 years old. Maybe younger I was just as happy with money as a gift. What better thing, can you get someone? Especially if you don’t know what to get somebody for Christmas.
Christmas is a rough time the year for a lot of people. A lot of people get depressed because they don’t know what to get someone. When you have a deadline, to get that special gift for that special someone, it adds a lot of pressure, the buyer of that gift. I know it does for me anyway. And I don’t know about you but I always, always spend way too much money for Christmas. So that adds to the pressure of Christmas. All this pressure at this time a year really makes it rough for some people. It’s so rough that some people don’t make it through the pressure. They feel like their gift, wasn’t good enough, wasn’t big enough, or and yes, sometimes not expensive enough.
Depression comes on for a lot of different reasons to someone. Their job causes them to have headaches, their family life causes them problems, and yes, in my case, their health causes them to worry. I’m finding myself more and more worried about things like, what’s going to happen to mom if something happens to me? Who’s going to take care of mom if I’m not able to do so? These are just some of the reasons that may cause someone to fall into depression.
As to how all this ties into dementia, dementia causes a lot of family problems. Things like going home for Christmas. It’s been 6 years since we’ve been back home to West Virginia because of mamas health. It’s been 2 years since my sister has come down to see mom. This is a sister that called mom every night and talked to mom on the telephone for 2 hours. She just quit calling she just quit coming to see mom.
