How to Calm Aggression in Alzheimer's Patients

There are situations in which, without prior experience, we don't really know how to react. In our previous posts for example, we talked about anger management in dementia patients . Aggression is usually a characteristic of people with dementia and especially Alzheimer's when they lose their cool. Below, nursing home owner Ephraim Zagelbaum explains everything you need to know on how to handle such situations and to calm them down.

In case you have doubts about the disease, be sure to review our post in which we explain how to recognize the first signs of Alzheimer's.

Aggression in Alzheimer's

As Ephraim Zagelbaum mentioned before, aggressiveness in Alzheimer's is a situation that you will find yourself as a caregiver. First of all, you must prepare yourself emotionally, since your loved one does not act in this way on their own initiative. It is Alzheimer's disease that causes this behavior and, therefore, you have to prepare for it.

That aggressiveness that your loved one experiences due to Alzheimer's must be taken as something external. And although it may be painful and difficult to understand at first, you should avoid reproach. That won't fix things and the only thing you can do is make the situation worse. Therefore, faced with the aggressiveness of a patient with Alzheimer's, you must remain calm and try in turn to make the sick person put aside that state of alteration.

Causes of aggressiveness in Alzheimer's

In aggressive people with Alzheimer's it is not easy to determine the exact causes of their behavior, but there are some characteristics that can be repeated at their origin. Here Ephraim Zagelbaum, CEO of Personal Healthcare lists some of them:

• Another type of latent disease or illness.
• Frustration.
• Pressures or demands that we make on them.
• Lack of physical activity. It is good that you go for a walk together.

Phases of aggressiveness in Alzheimer's

In the Alzheimer's crisis it cannot be said that there are different phases of aggressiveness. It is true that as the disease progresses, a phase of aggressiveness ends up manifesting in the person with Alzheimer's, but it usually always has a motive behind it. The disorientation of the person can play a fundamental role. Ultimately, it causes them agitation because their reality is distorted. This fact usually involves becoming aggressive, which becomes verbal and sometimes physical aggressiveness.

Given the irritability of the Alzheimer's patient, it is important that you observe the patterns, and see at what time or with which people it happens and if there is any environmental element that increases that aggressiveness. One of the psychological symptoms of a dementia disease such as Alzheimer's is aggressiveness, and therefore we must be prepared for when that phase of verbal and / or physical attacks arrives.