Alzheimer's Disease: "Where Has Yesterday Gone"
...mankind has always
reluctantly recognized and always with resignation. Memory loses are sometimes
trivial and meaningless and go unrecognized. However, when these loses are so
great that a person does not know who or where they are the concerns are quite
grave. Although it is realize that Alzheimer's disease destroys the brain memory
function, many do not realize precisely how the memory is destroyed once one is
aware of the process, it becomes faster to work forward to alleviate the
destruction.
"Without memory there is no knowledge to recreate or reproduce past
perceptions, emotions, thoughts and actions that are so vital to live a full and
functioning life. Memory is the key that unlocks doors that keep us functioning,
not only mentally but physically (Corrick 32)."
"Memory loss is not a sign of decay (Freedman 10)." As we get older,
there is some mild impairment in our recollection of recent events, such as
forgetting why one went into a room or misplacing a person's eye glasses, which
even young are guilty of doing. As reported by Larry Squire, "forgetting is
quite normal and usually develops in the third decade of life, and by one
estimate 85 percent of the healthy elderly those over 65suffer some memory
impairment (59)."
According to Dr. Seligmann, "forgetting is the process through which
information in memory becomes inaccessible, either because it is stored but is
not at that time retrievable (51)." This is one of the most important factors in
forgetting. Memory loss is rapid at first and then gradually levels off. There
are many types of "dismembering" enemies that hamper ones recall and retrieval
system. "Forgetting may be increased by interference from proactive inhibition,
that is material learned beforehand, like trying to remember a soup recipe
(51)."
In remembering stories or events there is a tendency for distortions to
occur. Cutler...
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