My husband has recently stopped watching TV, even his favourite channel from Europe and he wants only to listen to music. Last night he almost panicked when I put the TV on for figure skating which he used to love. He told me to turn it off quickly. He also sits with his eyes closed a lot of the time, especially in the car. I'm puzzled by this and am wondering if any of your spouses are experiencing this.
Sometimes, when we are watching TV my DH says the people are looking at him. Right now he like CNN, but will watch anything. Usually, he will fall asleep while watching TV. I think with some, the TV may be too much stimulation.
Inge, he could be at the stage where focusing on the screen and /or movement is difficult. The wiring for the eyes to the brain short circuit sometimes too, and it sends weird signals to the brain and tell it that it is seeing something unfamiliar. Or he might not be able to focus. I would take him to an opthamologist and have him checked to make certain whether it is a situation that could be corrected if he's not in stage 6. Visual preception goes haywire. My husband also closes his eyes a lot when the TV or a movie is on, where he used to love to watch movies. The visual perception also applies to throw rugs (I now have all light ones) and the toilets and chairs. I don't know what stage your husband is in, but mine began having visual perception problems at stage 6 and they have gotten progressively worse now that he is in stage 7.
Inge, there is a woman (Margaret) at the facility where my husband is that usually has her eyes closed. This does not mean that she does not know what is going on around her though. There was a musician in recently and Margaret knew every word to "Home on the Range" and sang them all with her eyes closed.
It is not unusual for them to have problems focusing. Mine used to love to watch TV, stopped and now is enjoying it again. One of the things I have noticed is that for those that wear glasses that there is a stage where they stop wearing them totally. Sometimes, they will wear them again later and sometimes they won't.
You do need to get him checked in case it is something else, but realize that it might be the disease and there is nothing that the eye doctor can do for him.
inge, could it be as Maryd says, that he thinks the people are real?
My Dh is stage 4-5 and likes to sit and watch TV but I think that absolutely nothing penetrates. We have a morning news station that will repeat the news every 10 minutes exactly the same and he will sit and watch it for an hour and a half. Maybe it's restful for him. Tonight, watching a rivetting movie that I had recorded, he got up halfway through and said he wanted to go to bed. It was 7 o'clock. He had been watching the movie quietly but apparently not focussing at all. I think it gives him the idea that he is doing something ordinary or useful to pass the time.
He has also lost the knack of changing channels. If I ask him to put it on channel 1 he will do so (after getting out his glasses so he can see the numbers on the remote, can't remember where the 1 is), but he will never change it on his own. He will also walk away from the TV area without turning it off. (That also goes for lights and fans.) He used to be the big energy conservor around here. Fortunately he has also forgotten how to turn the thermostat up. He puts on a sweater when he feels chilly (every evening).
He has no idea whether we're watching live TV or a recording, does not understand the difference anymore.
G has a very difficult time with the TV. He can't use the remote to speak of except the muting button occasionally. He mutes everything..simply cannot stand listening to commercials or other odd things such as the weathermen. He flips out if I have the sound on during forecasting! However, in the evening we will watch recorded programs such as Jag or Bones with no problems. Go figure!
DH loves to watch NCIS and House. Most of them are re-runs - and he always says, I think I've seen this, but don't remember what happened, so he watches again and again. He messes up the remote daily, although he can change channels and turn it on and off - just hits the wrong button sometimes and totally messes it up! Lately, more often, he doesn't understand what the characters are saying and will ask me what they said. I don't think it's the volume, and his hearing is good. I think he's just not processing their words fast enough.
My dw just set the Guiness Book of records for the most television watched ever. She watches movie after movie, tv shows, etc. Not only do we get netflix, but she can burn thru 40 movies a week...And she also watches her favorites over and over...We just finished watching 176 episodes of Charmed over a two month period, and I earned a d at the end of my name....I am now known as Phranque DuCHARMED. I just bought the seasons for "Dead Zone".....season 1 and 2....it sounded appropriate....
Occasionally my husband will watch a talk or game show in his first language and gets really involved to the point that I hear him shouting things or clapping. It's the fast moving and loud stuff that he does not like. In the car he says it's the things going by he doesn't like that's why he keeps his eyes closed. He seems to get these obsessions and at the moment it's his eyes. Before that it was having to have one or more cups of water by his side and before that it was going to the bathroom every minute. He had a full work up with his opthalmologist in May and June this year and everything was all right so it may be just another one of those things but I will get it checked. I will also ask if he keeps his eyes closed in the day program. I doubt it because they tell me he participates well.
DH doesn't watch TV very much now. He can't follow the plot, and he thinks what is on the TV is happening right here. I have to be very careful about what is on when he is in the room. One time there was a fairly violent show and he started seeing people with guns trying to get into the house, and dead bodies out on the lawn. Terrible time!! He also gets upset with the news, but again, so do I. :-)
We stopped watching the evening news two years ago. He would get up and leave the room every time (and get into things, so I had to stop watching it and put in a movie that he would watch).
Now he watches NCIS, CSI, HOUSE, and a couple of others in the evening. But mostly, he dozes now. He watches movies during the day when he is awake. Any time he doesn't like what is on, he gets up to leave the room - so we'll swap out movies until we find one he'll sit and watch.
TV watching has changed over time. For a long time he would only watch the DIY network and it was on all day. And NASCAR all day long during the weekends. Now he wants the TV on at 3:00 for a bunch of talk shows, but mostly he doesn't watch them. He watched no programs with stories or plots for a very long time. I started watching a show I'd recorded earlier with him (a whole series of the ones with gentler plots) a few months ago just before he went to bed.
It comes and goes. And I think some of the pacing is that he doesn't really want to watch the talk shows, but doesn't know any other thing to watch.
DH never before watched much tv but now he watches for hours. Seems like he can watch the NEWS for hours on end. MSNBC and some C-span I think. I was always the news junckie in the family and he had use for the evening news only and not much repetition. Very different now. And BALLGAMES. But nothing else as far as I have noticed. Drives me nuts as his hearing is so impaired even with captions he keeps the volume loud. Up until last year he would watch an occasional Law & Order, Without a Trace or Masterpiece Theatre, esp. Poirot, but solitary watching it's NEWS or ball games. Seems I've read other comments about LOs watching a lot of C-Span. Is this common then? And why do you think?
terry, he isn't actually watching. It is noise and nothing else. The programs you mentioned all need him to pay attention to them and follow them. I'm not trying to watch any of the ones you mentioned with my husband. I stick to the ones with easy plots.
My DH will "watch" the evening news, but like Starling says, not really know what is being said. However, once in a while he will pick up a sentence or two and get upset, taking it out of context and think it is happening here with us.
It is noise, but it's mostly men's voices, and it can be boring as all get out! But he prefers their voices to those of the women on the morning shows. Men on the news don't talk over each other as much as the women,or as people do on dramas. That's hard for them.