Alzheimer's Movie

The movie, "The Notebook," is a beautiful tale of the love of a man for his wife, even though her mind has been taken away by Alzheimer's disease. He spends day after day, hour after hour, reading selections to her from an old journal, while she alternately accuses him of trying to take advantage of her or simply treats him as a nice but bewildering stranger. When she makes a momentary connection with reality, he is overcome.

Identification

• Alzheimer's disease is an insidious, gradual loss of the very thing that makes us ourselves: our memories, experiences and personality. People with Alzheimer's can be said to have literally lost their minds. The central gap in their brains widens, and brain mass shrinks, leaving less and less room for the nerves and synapses needed to make connections and maintain cognitive functions.

Effects

• One of the earliest noticeable effects of Alzheimer's is the loss of the ability to remember names of new people or places, recall recent events, or perform complex mental tasks without frequent error. Eventually, the person may forget his current address, the name of his spouse and children, and any history older than childhood. In the final stages, the person loses the ability to dress, toilet, and perform other personal care tasks independently. Th individual may become despondent or combative in stressful or unfamiliar surroundings. Eventually, the individual loses the ability to walk, stand, sit without support, smile and talk.
  In the movie "The Notebook," when the husband, Noah, realizes that his wife, Allie, has Alzheimer's disease, he journals every significant event of their lives together. Each time he visits Allie, he reads a passage to her, hoping to see a spark of recognition in her eyes or prompt her to relate to him as her lifelong love rather than the total stranger she thinks he is.

Significance

• "The Notebook" illustrates the importance of maintaining contact with the individual. Do everything possible to orient the person to space and time, making whatever connections are possible. This family interaction increases the individual's quality of life in ways that cannot be measured. It also helps family members gain acceptance and understanding of the struggle the individual is making. Family contact can also lessen the need for medication to control behavioral outbursts and depression.

Considerations

• People with Alzheimer's are adults who have lost the ability to access their recent history. Many behavioral issues seen in adults with dementia arise from the frustration of being treated as having returned to a second childhood. Take care to treat the individual as an adult at all times. Do not wheedle and bargain when the individual asserts his independence or balks at completing a task. Give genuine choices, and do not do for the individual things that he should be doing for himself.
  One of Noah's greatest frustrations is Allie's outbursts when he attempts any kind of intimacy. Even something as harmless as holding hands can bring about a screaming, tear-filled rant. "I don't know you," said with a look of contempt, cuts Noah straight through the heart. He does his best to calm her, but is forced to retreat and try again another day.

Potential

• Everyone should watch the Alzheimer's movie, "The Notebook." More than just a heartfelt love story, the movie illustrates a successful strategy for coping with the effects of Alzheimer's disease: making a life journal, complete with photographs, memorabilia and detailed descriptions of life events. Reading the journal helps orient the individual, providing a bridge to the current reality. The journal also serves to remind the reader that this person accomplished something, and still has value to society. It gives hope to struggling family members that their efforts to maintain contact are worthwhile.