"If You Have Met One Person With _____, You Have Met One Person With ____."

Many in the Dementia Community say this phrase, they put it on graphics that they pass around the internet, and I have even seen it on T-shirts...but few know where it came from. 

“If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism,” Dr. Stephen Shore.  Yup, it came from the Autism Community. 

And it doesn't surprise me that the Dementia Community has been borrowing from the world of Autism, because the Autism Community is wonderfully full of amazing insights, and tips and tricks, for dealing with and living with a NeuroCognitive Disorder that both Dementia and Autism are. 

Although Autism is a brain that is wired differently from birth and Dementia is a brain that is being damaged and dying, interestingly, they are affected in the SAME areas of the brain and thus, experience stunning similarities in symptoms....as well as, things that help. 

AUTISM & DEMENTIA

* Needing things always be the same / difficulty with changes in routine.

* Repetitive motions

* Delayed processing speed

* Sensory processing issues

* Difficulty regulating emotions

* Shutting down / withdrawal inside themselves

* Inability tell you that they are sick or in pain

* Incontinence

* Inability live independently

* Difficulty with language & communication

* Wander risks

* Not understanding the risks or dangers

* For a caregiver, extreme difficulty caring for a largely non-verbal person who no longer thinks like you. 

Of course, there are some differences.  Autism is usually diagnosed in young children who have very little life experience, and often before they have even learned speak (it is the only life that person knows).  Whereas Dementia happens later in life, after the person has had time living without it, and can generally talk (it is not the only life the person knows).  So this impacts how the SAME symptoms manifest themselves or are described. 

I am not trying suggest that they are the same things, just saying that although the Dementia Community has come up with a number of things help us, it has not come up with near the number of things parents of autistic children have come up with.  So why stop at borrowing a quote and a fidget blanket?  Why not tap in the wealth of information the other community has share and offer?  

I mean, after all, isn't life way more short than re-inventing the wheel? 

Why not consider the benefits of things like weighted blankets, or compression vests, or the wealth of fidgets and how they might help you or your loved one?

<3