DH always wants to leave the house

annie51

All day long, DH is constantly wanting to “get going”. He is fixated on walking a specific route in the neighborhood. We walk the route, stopping to talk to anyone we see (which is another challenge), we come home, change out of our sweaty clothes, then he says “are you ready to go?” This goes on ALL DAY LONG. He doesn’t remember that we just got back or that we walked it multiple times already. I can redirect on occasion or suggest going for a drive. This is getting really frustrating day after day after day and makes it difficult to get anything done in the house. If I try to stall to get something done, he’ll take off on his own, then I have to follow him. At least the weather should be getting cooler soon so we won’t be walking in 93 degree weather.
Thanks for letting me rant!

harshedbuzz

@annie51

That sounds both exhausting and frustrating.

I know my mom found her time as acting as dad's personal cruise director while trying to manage cooking, cleaning, bill paying, laundry and all the myriad tasks of keeping a household afloat very frustrating.

She brought in some aides, but it wasn't ideal as he only wanted mom if he knew she was around. Same if I tried to give her a break. Since you DH is driven to be on-the-go vs my dad's sedentary "come sit with me" flavor of dementia, maybe a day program where he could "volunteer because they need the helpers" would give you the needed time to take care or the house and maybe do a little something to recharge your batteries.

HB

Milo4455

My DH seems to be getting into this as well… "let's go, go, go". Some days are worse than others and redirecting is hit, or miss. When it's a miss, we ride around, go to lunch, etc., several times a day. I just keep the jeep filled up with gas, cause I never know what the day will bring.

SDianeL

wonder if anxiety causes it? Maybe ask the doctor for anti anxiety meds?

howhale

I have seen others comment about how "clingy" their loved one is when they are around. I too found that true when I brought in some help. If I stayed present, my dear wife would focus solely on me and stop interacting with the caregiver so I quickly learned that I had to remain out of sight if I wanted any value of the time the caregiver was here. Your experiences with your loved one wanting to go outside, take walks ,go, go, go are such a surprise for me. My dear wife quickly went to just the opposite. Her safe world began to shrink. She would not go for a ride, she would not step outside, her world became basically three rooms in our home. Amazing how this condition affects each victim so differently. Makes the challenge of navigating the care for our loved one so difficult.

annie51

https://alzconnected.org/discussion/comment/253654#Comment_253654

He is taking sertraline once in the morning and a low dose of risperidone twice a day. Maybe it should be increased?

l7pla1w2

https://alzconnected.org/discussion/comment/253662#Comment_253662

I wonder whether the go-go-go behavior is just doing an activity he's still capable of. DW kept wanting to do laundry, even if there weren't many dirty clothes. It was something to do. She wanted to wash dishes by hand, rather than put them in the dishwasher, and she insisted on drying them, rather than let them drip dry in the dish rack. She has an unquenchable desire to be useful.