Carol is #6>>7 and most of her speaking is not understandable. I try to answer her with thngs like Really, I don't know, I guess, Oh, etc. But when she is agitated or angry it is really tough on me. Conversations that go bad are usually my fault beause I loose my cool. I give her several clonazepam to hopefully calm her down. I give her a Respiradol at night so that she will hopefully wake up calm and take her bath without a scene. I wear hearing aids so my problem is even greater.
I do get tired of listening to her and wish I could respond with real understanding but that's no longer possible. Sometime she will watch TV quitely and I realish thos times. Any wise observations and/or suggestions???
Bill, what I do is say "I'm sorry, Sweetie, I can't understand what you're trying to say", in the hope she can understand what I am saying. It breaks my heart to ignore her after that, but there's nothing else you can do. It is what it is, and you just have to harden yourself to the situation. With the hearing aids, maybe you can at least turn them down if not off.
I am on meds to help me with depression. I think it helps me to tune her out. It used to drive me nuts and I would loose it and then feel guilty about that. I find that I now have a much higher tolerance level for her constant repeating and the same question over and over. She has good days when this does not happen much.
My DH talks all the time, too, Bill. And nothing is intelligible. I try to answer but he gets upset if I get it wrong. Sometimes I do ignore him, and sometimes, I realize he isn't talking to me at all but to some person that only he can see and hear. Then he gets upset if I do respond, and looks at me like I am some stranger interrupting a good conversation. It is just a hard phase to get through. Can't win for losing.