Being Ill with No Self-Awareness

The New York Times blog, The New Old Age ran a post by Judith Graham, When They Don’t Know They Are Ill. The focus of the story is on “anosognosia” which, according to the article, is part of dementias and brain disorders that results in the person not knowing there is something amiss.  The article notes that anosognosia doesn’t affect everyone in the same way;  up to 42% of those in the early stage of Alzheimer’s show symptoms of it. The article tells the story of one couple where the wife had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. Yet when the husband attempted to talk about the issues with the wife, she had justifications for everything and he ultimately was viewed by her as her critic. The husband spoke last year at a conference at Northwestern on his experiences.

There are a number of resources on anosognosia, including a fact sheet from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and training materials for caregivers from the AlzOnLine (caregiver Support).