Daily Struggle with Sundowner's

SpiritCity

Our LO around 4pm almost daily puts on her coat and packs a bag of clothing.  She tells us she is ready to go to her original home.  She mentions that our current house is a duplicate of her original one.  In a calm tone, we find ourselves gently reminding her she is in a safe place to stay and won't have to worry about leaving our house.  She responds by asking throughout the evening hours, "Are you able to take me home?"  Please feel free to share any advice on how best to handle this type of dilemma!

SusanB-dil

Fiblets. Distractions.  and much patience to fib and repeat. 

What type of fiblet might work for both of you?  Could you tell her that the 'other' house is being worked on in some way, and you will be staying at current house for a while?

Neverends

Hello, my mother does this daily starts in the afternoon just like your loved one. When she says she's going home I tell her " yes you can go in the morning because it's late now and my car is at the mechanics. " Sometimes  she attempts  to go out the door but stops dead in her tracks  when the cold hits her face, we live in PA.  Summertime  is problematic. She sits on the porch a lot but as soon as the " Magic Hour " is upon us she wants to go home. Sometimes I can redirect her. If I am unsuccessful  in redirecting and I see her anxiety  escalating, I get her inside and lock the doors and we are both in the house. Seroquel  has helped  tremendously  for her, a lot less outbursts. Hope that helps, stay strong.

mommyandme (m&m)

Maybe a med like lorazepam could help with her anxiety? It can be given as needed.  

Sorry for these struggles. 

glitterqueenscare

My Mom was much the same, she would pack a bag and insist or cry and beg that we take her home.  Often she would say her family would be worried about her and looking for her.  It dawned on me she meant her Mother and Father.  I believe this behavior persisted for over two - three years to some degree, sometimes distractions or fiblets worked and sometimes nothing worked.  It was very frustrating especially when it eventually led to constant exit seeking and heightened need to guard against wandering.  We found ourselves locked in our home with all doors and windows locked down like a fortress for the last two summers by 5:00 or 6:00 PM.

Seroquel did help some but it never completely went away, I always felt like it was much worse when the daylight hours were longer.  We would also sometimes give her a low dose of melatonin prior to the expected sundowning timeframe (say 3:30/4:00).  It didn't knock her out but did calm her and seemed to stop the fixation.  I got that idea from a local online support group, maybe try it at least because it did really help us.

I feel for you, those were some of the most difficult experiences to manage at home.  I read somewhere that for someone suffering with the disease seeking to go "home" is not necessarily a particular place or house they seek its more of a feeling of home.

I would definitely be prepared for potential exit seeking and wandering and make her doctor aware.  

May flowers

We did not struggle with sundowners as badly as some, but we did find that melatonin helped for a long time - he was able to fall asleep and stay asleep. His nighttime issues are different now, so we found the melatonin no longer works.

live in daughter

When our Mom would ask to go home we would tell her we arranged for the movers to come the next day. We talked how hard is was to get the movers arranged. We would tell our Mom that the movers would bring all the boxes and pack up her things- so she did not have to pack anything. This would sometimes help- needed to be repeated often during the night.

We also would call another daughter or son to talk with Mom- hoping to redirect the conversation of going home.

We had our Mom on Seroquel but found better outcomes with Risperidone. We also would give Xanax for breakthrough anxiety.

Hope this helps.