suggestion to avoid watching news on TV (of bad events)

This is a very important post. TV news with its over-emphasis on negative and sensational stories -- that's the last thing a PWD needs to see, when they already are struggling with reality. If I would not expose an impressionable young child to something, I would not want my DH viewing it either.

Such scary, violent, and graphic images and storylines to imprint on a confused brain...it is asking for trouble. From weather disasters to bombs and war, to local catastrophes like burning buildings, car crashes, burglaries, murders and other distressing threats. Nope, we started avoiding this in early stages, along with most everything on TV that isn't G rated pretty much. I don't want screaming and yelling in my actual relationships, so why would I bring it into my home via fiction, which my DH may experience as real?!

Thanks for bringing this up. Watching disturbing content can contribute to agitation, fear, and trigger hallucinations and delusions for our LOs unnecessarily. Why take that chance when they are already struggling with reality and are processing information differently as their brains decline. This is a great reminder of something simple we can do to respect how dementia changes our LOs and the need for us to adapt their habits (and ours) accordingly.

Oh my gosh. I learned this lesson during the Hawaiian wildfire last year. He kept panicking and trying to get me to evacuate. Dementia wouldn't let him understand that the fires were nowhere near us.

my mother has had advanced ALZ dementia for the past 9 years. the only TV we watch are repeat game shows on amazon prime - supermarket sweep, password plus and blockbusters. we've been watching the same episodes over and over for the past 7 years at meal times and she never grows tired of them and they are safe for her to watch. other than meal times, there's no TV on - just Perry Como records and short dementia novels for her to read.

Yes!! My mom got hooked on the weather channel, which was OK at first but then we discovered she was watching those "big truck goes off the road in a Canadian snowstorm" shows, and would call my brother in a panic to see if he was OK.

Preemptively, we watch a lot of PBS at our house. My partner doesn't really watch any more but I appreciate the lack of blood and guts in the BBC shows.

This is such helpful information for families, and not necessarily something we all think about when our LO starts showing potential dementia symptoms. I never knew this was an issue until my mom started accusing everyone around her (mostly me and my sibling) of committing crimes, fraud, stealing, doing drugs, and elder abuse. None of these thing were true and all came on suddenly at different times over many months. She was still living alone, and the tv was on almost constantly in the background. One day it dawned on us that what she was hearing/seeing on tv was feeding into terrible challenges she was having with paranoia and delusions. She got very upset one day and started claiming we were going to be arrested and charged with federal fraud. It was completely out of the blue and we realized that same day that the news was announcing a federal indictment. Then came the elder abuse claims, again out of no where. It was the same day their were news stories about a celebrity accusing their child of elder abuse. Once we noticed the connection, we tried to encourage her to watch old movies and game shows she used to like, but the damage was done. Those negative stories have continued to feed what she considers her "memories" of things that have happened to her and everyone around her.

Don't forget about the phone.

Peggy had so many alerts on her phone, that thing was constantly pinging, and I had no idea what all was going on. Until I looked. Two of her alerts were for fire outbreaks (we're in CA, so we keep tabs on these things), and for earthquakes (same thing). Thing is, Peggy is deathly afraid of both, so she was constantly checking her phone to see if a fire or earthquake had happened near us.

Needless to say, I disabled those as soon as I discovered them.

I am newly diagnosed with early-stage dementia. Television in general with fast loud commercials drives me into a state of pain. I used to get up every morning and watch the news. I stopped this practice and enjoyed the peace and natural sounds of the surroundings. Today I finally put on the radio and listened to NPR. I get overloaded easily. Thanks for sharing BTW. G