Discussion » Statements » Rosie's Corner » It's very scary to think that one day you may be unable to think. Senile dementia or Alzheimer's is out there waiting for some of us. You?
RosieG

It's very scary to think that one day you may be unable to think. Senile dementia or Alzheimer's is out there waiting for some of us. You?

Is that "possibility" something that haunts you? What do you worry about more than losing the ability to process information in the correct sequence, comprehend it and  clearly articulate it to others?

Posted - June 23, 2019
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Responses


  • 3684
    It is frightening to think of some creeping, disabling mental or physical illness taking you over.

    I have a one friend with Multiple Sclerosis, another with Alzheimer's (or some other form of dementia), and both conditions are physical diseases. I don't like to think which may be the worse though.

    By the way, the adjective "senile" is no longer used. It means ONLY and simply "old / elderly" - the same root as "senior" and the opposite of "juvenile" - and although dementia strikes more commonly over the age of 50 or 60, it can occur much earlier in life.

    I think the problem was that so many people have never been taught to understand words, so tended to use "senile" when they meant "demented" or "dementia"; and it's warped the word for aged into a slang synonym for the disease.   X
      June 23, 2019 8:22 AM MDT
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  • 113301
    I did not get that memo Durdle.

    SENILE
    Showing a decline or deterioration of physical strength or MENTAL functioning (caps are mine)
    The definition number 2 pertains to age. The first definition pertains to deterioration of the mind

    SENILE DEMENTIA
     A syndrome of progressive irreversible  impairment of cognitive functioning caused by organic factors and having its onset late in life

    So what you are telling me is that my Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language is outdated obsolete inaccurate. The copy I have was published in 1996. By the way my mother suffered from Senile Dementia per her doctor's words and passed away at age 95. Thank you for your reply.
      June 23, 2019 9:30 AM MDT
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  • 46117
    It depends where the brain lands.  

    Some dementia patients are happier than others.  

    Most are depressed.  That is what scares me the most.  Is to be in some hell and not know where you are at or why.   

    I guess Trump doesn't have much longer to live then.   There is hope on the horizon. 
     

    Average Dementia Survival: 4.5 Years

    Study of Dementia Patients Shows Women Live Slightly Longer Than Men

     
    This post was edited by WM BARR . =ABSOLUTE TRASH at June 23, 2019 3:58 PM MDT
      June 23, 2019 9:49 AM MDT
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  • 3684
    It means then that Websters has adopted the popular idea of what "senile" means, though I think most people do decline with advanced age without actually being so ill they need a lot of high-level care.

    I have not seen or heard the two words together in any serious medical context for many years; possibly because "senile" has now become rather perjorative or at least insensitive.

    My two friends are only in their 60s. I don't know their life expectancies, but I think MS can eventually be fatal while dementia shortens life. I tried to find out so I understood it better, but the sources I found all worked on dementia sufferers being old enough to be naturally near the end anyway so I was unable to gain a clear idea of what happens.

    Awful illnesses, anyway. My friend's Alzheimer's has destroyed his speech, so he can barely enunciate two or three words together and clearly. The rest is all scrambled.
      June 23, 2019 9:51 AM MDT
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  • 113301
    I find it oddly queer and peculiar how words morph into the abyss of definition questioning so frequently. Remember when GAY meant happy and carefree? It was then co-opted to mean homosexual. I find that very OFFENSIVE personally. You perceive SENILE as a pejorative or insensitive. I do not live in your world Durdle. My world is very different from yours. When senile refers to cognitive impairment which is how I USE IT then it is a fact not a slur. Someone at 95 who is described as senile is not being insulted if the cognitive ability is less than it used to be. If a person at 60 is senile that is sad of course but an insult? Not in my world. The nuances and subtleties of what words mean cannot be quantified or engraved in cement. If your group thinks of senility as an insult so be it. I cannot control what you perceive/understand any more than you can control what I perceive and understand. Either you take my word for it or you don't. No disrespect intended here but just because YOU SAY SO isn't enough for me. As I said semantics is a very complex issue. I know my intention when I choose the words I use. I do so very purposefully. What you ascertain from them I cannot control. So you took issue with it. That is your right. It is my right to tell you what I think. You don't have to accept my view nor I yours.  Many words are pretzelized hijacked and deformed to mean other things. When in doubt I go to the dictionary. Whatever the current patois is does not concern me. I am interested in a precise definition and not how some group or another massaged it to mean something else. OK. Over and out. Thank you for your reply.
      June 24, 2019 5:42 AM MDT
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  • 3684
    Oh Dear. I'm sorry if I've offended you.

    I do not regard the word "senile" as perjorative at all - to me, it just means "old", the opposite of "juvenile".
    It became attached to "dementia" to describe medical conditions that occur much more commonly in the elderly, as your mother's doctor had done.

    Unfortunately far too many people cannot or will not understand that, and mis-use "senile" on its own to mean "demented", but all too often do so in an insulting way even about anyone merely a bit eccentric or forgetful. That's why it's fallen out of serious use. Nothing to do with my "group", whoever they may be, either, but general use.
    '

    Senile is by no means the only word to fall foul of ignorance.

    You mention "gay" - its slang meaning for homosexual was apparently coined by homosexual night-club types in New York; but everyone has to follow suit. Why?
     
    What you call a "cell" phone - from "cellular", describing their networks - is called "mobile" in Britain, but it's not mobile at all. It's portable. Someone in the industry used the wrong adjective and it stuck.

    More recently the IT industry has ordered us to use "content" (adjective of satisfaction) to mean "contents" (noun for material held); while thanks apparently to some radio DJ coining "inspirational", we are not allowed to use the far more mellifluous and shorter "inspiring".

    I'm told the Oxford English Dictionary defines "epicentre" as "centre". This nonsense is due only to ignorant politicians and the like the geological term they do not understand, as a metaphor - obviously they do not know either, that it gives a very different meaning to their intended one.

    The same dictionary has also come under fire for omitting Nature-based words like "blackberry" and other common plant or animal names from its children's edition, for some spurious excuse about "relevance". So by abrogating its responsibility, it makes ignorance triumph over learning.

    '
    I wish people would use words like " senile" in their real sense, as your doctor could. They could not then be used as insults by the ignorant. Maybe it's worse though than stifling learning by omitting or mis-defining real Nature words like 'blackberry' and 'epicentre' from dictionaries. That's bad enough, but maybe it's also encouraging a stealthy, creeping version of "Newspeak", the political tool in George Orwell's 1984. 






      June 24, 2019 10:00 AM MDT
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