I have been married to a mild mannered, even tempered man for a long time and at first I couldn't believe there was such a man like this, except for my father of course. The dementia has changed that. He is getting "mad" (his words) at me for little things. He is also getting "mad" at objects. He has a hobby that he has had most his life(sculpting with wire) the other day he was on the couch and was forming the wire and he said that he bit his lip because he got mad at the wire. I asked him how bad and looked at his mouth. I didn't see anything but he said that it hurt when he did it but doesn't now. Is this increased anxiety on his part? Every once in a while I ask him how he is dealing with the changes going on with him. Even though he says it doesn't bother him one way or another, I think it does. Would it be better if we don't talk about it at all? I am not able to have any conversations with him much anymore and I miss being able to talk to him so every once in a while I bring up things but after about 2 minutes he gets this blank look on his face and if I go beyond that he will get "mad" at me. I stop right away but how long is it going to be before his getting "mad" at me turns into something else, if it indeed does do that. Am I going to have any warning a head of time? I didn't with what is going on now.
Deb, my husband did that for about a year. It increased on a daily basis. His rage grew and grew until he had a meltdown and is now in an assisted living home that is more like a nursing home. They have his meds changed and he is better, but after 8 months he still gets mad. He will hit or kick the staff etc. I am not sure if maybe the stronger meds sooner would have forestalled his meltdown or not. If you have a doctor that is really up on AD, please talk to them. I was talking to my DH doctors constantly but they did not want to change to a stronger medicine, so just increased his anxiety meds. I do not think we gained anything by waiting because he just got worse.
Talk to the doctor and try to get their attention to his situation.
Deb if hes admitting to biting his own lip due to rage within it could be a sign that he needs some medications changed. i agree with Grannywhiskers you should contact the dr and explain whats up. its ALWAYS better to foresee and addres prior to something happening too late. prevention is key with AD especially with aggresion- a tweak of meds may help mellow him out - its good for him as well feeling like that cant be easy on him either. good luck divvi
I can certainly relate. Sid was warm and loving to me our entire married life. He changed in what seemed like an instant - irrational, full of rage, unable to control temper tantrums, could not be reasoned with, and most of the anger directed right at me. I learned that it was due to the brain damage inflicted by AD. Only risperdal and celexa calmed him down.
A doctor who specializes in AD will recognize and understand the symptoms immediately and put him on medication to calm the rages, because they know that verbal abuse, anger, and/or rage, can turn into physical abuse with no warning.
Go to the home page - www.thealzheimerspouse.com - and look on the left side. Under "previous blogs" is a search engine. Type in "rage" or "anger", and all the blogs I wrote about that issue will come up.
Thank you for all your responses. I totally agree that this is going to progressively get worse. It doesn't change anything that will happen but it is good to know before hand what is going on and what will go on. I see his dr. on the 9th of april and will let him know then. Also joang, thanks for the blogs and I will let you know how things are going. Thanks again for being here, couldn't do it with out you and wouldn't want to try.