Welcome back Careblazer, I hope you are doing well!

Today, I want to talk about something that can help turn anger toward your loved one into compassion. If you are like many of the Careblazers I know, then your LOWD has probably done things to drive you crazy, make you upset, maybe even straight up angry. It’s normal, you are human, and it will probably happen again.

What I want to share with you is a way to think about some of those situations differently so that instead of sitting in that anger, festering in that frustration, and ruining your whole day, you can find a way to move forward and make sure things don’t get worse.

If you would rather watch my video on this topic, click here.

Remember how we’ve talked about how your feelings impact your actions and those actions will impact your loved ones behavior. This means that staying upset and angry carries a greater chance of your loved one becoming upset and having more challenging behaviors and the last...

Today I want to talk about some common conditions that happen in older adults, that can look exactly like dementia, but it’s not dementia. The danger here is that if everyone just assumes it’s dementia, it can cause you and your loved one to be living lives that are significantly below the quality of life that you both can have.

If you would rather watch my video on this topic, click here. 

Sometimes as people age and start to show signs of confusion and forgetfulness, it’s easy for people to just assume they are having thinking problems, or the beginning stages of dementia when in fact it can be something entirely different. So let’s go over some of the common culprits.

DEPRESSION

Older adults who are depressed often present with symptoms that look exactly like dementia. They may be forgetful, lack energy, not shower/change, stop doing basic responsibilities such as paying bills. Their concentration may be poor. And so on. Counseling and in some...

Hi there Careblazer, welcome back. There’s been a theme lately inside my care course that we’ve been spending some time talking about during our live Q&A sessions and I want to talk about it here as well since I’m guessing many of you can relate.

It’s about guilt...specifically guilt about putting a loved in a nursing home while you get to enjoy life. One of the course members talked about not being able to enjoy herself when she would go out to eat or to the movies because she feels such guilt for her husband who is in a nursing home. So I want to talk about this idea of guilt and difficulty enjoying yourself as a result of that guilt.

If you would rather watch my video on this topic, click here. 

Here’s the way I want you to think about this.

You already know from watching my past videos, reading past blogs, or from downloading the Careblazer Survival Guide that situations don’t create your feelings. So the fact that your LOWD...

Today I want to talk about some common self-care myths that are holding you back and keeping you down. I’ve been talking about this a lot recently inside of my care club for the members who are a part of my course and I wanted to share some of those details with you because, well I think they can help you re-evaluate your thinking about what it takes to take good care of yourself while caring for someone with dementia.

If you would prefer to watch my video on this topic, click here.

Many of you are ignoring your needs. You’ve basically put your life on hold to take care of your loved one and you are finding that you are down, sad, perhaps a bit resentful as you realize your own health and relationships have gone down the tube.

Well, even though this is common among caregivers, it’s really not okay to ignore yourself while caring for your loved one. I'm hoping this will get you to rethink some of what’s stopping you from caring for yourself and encourage you...

Welcome back Careblazer. Thank you for being here. Today I want to talk about a question I’ve been seeing in the YT comments lately and it’s what is the difference between mild cognitive impairment (aka MCI) and dementia.

This is a bit technical on the exact definitions and what the healthcare community uses to diagnose but I’m going to try to explain it as simply and clearly as possible.

When we think about cognition, think about it on a continuum. We have “normal” thinking on one end and dementia on the other.

As a quick recap- there are many types of dementia. So on this end of the spectrum I’m talking about ALL the dementias- alzheimer’s, vascular, frontotemporal, lewy body, etc.

Here in the middle is what we call mild cognitive impairment. The official term is actually called mild neurocognitive disorder. Let’s go straight the source for the definition of both. Now when we talk about cognitive functioning, there are different...

Today I want to talk about a question many of you have that is causing you soooo much distress and emotional pain. The question is “does my LOWD know what they are doing?" Or “Is my LOWD doing things on purpose?”  

This is the 3rd part in a 3 part series focused on your thoughts and how your thoughts impact your mood AND your LO’s mood. This series has been something I’ve been working on with the members of my Care Course and I want to share some of that with you because I know it can be helpful. By really getting a handle on this concept and applying it to your life, you have the ability to greatly reduce the amount of your caregiver stress. I hope you have already started seeing the changes.

If you would prefer to watch my video on this topic click here. 

So for today: Is your loved one doing things on purpose? The things that upset you, make life harder for you, saying things that are hurtful, are those things on purpose?

These questions...

Welcome back Careblazer! Today I am going to continue the discussion from last week on the power of your thoughts but I want to specifically focus on how your YOUR thinking actually impacts your loved one’s behavior. It’s pretty wild that your thinking can actually impacts your loved one’s mood for better or for worse and I'm hoping that by watching this video you can apply it to help you.

If you missed last week’s discussion, I recommend you stop reading this one and go back to last week’s blog or watch the video first. Then come right on back. To read last weeks blog click here. To watch the video click here. 

As a quick recap, last week we talked about how situations don’t create your emotions. It’s your thinking about the situation that creates your emotion.

Let’s take an example straight out of the Careblazer Survival guide for a quick review.

SITUATION: Your mom lost her purse again and is yelling that you stole her...

Hi there Careblazer,

I want to share with you a concept I’ve been teaching inside my Care group with my private care group members. Because they are seeing such great results I want to share some of that with you here as well. This will be the first of a 3 part series on your thoughts and your feelings as a dementia Careblazer and how you can start to feel better. So the next 2 blogs will be follow-ups on this and helping you take the concept further and apply it to your life.

If you would prefer to watch my video, click here. 

Okay, now let’s get started.

I’m going to share something with you that may take you by surprise and i really hope you will keep reading and try to apply it to your life because I think it can be life changing.

Here is goes: Situations do NOT create your feelings. They don’t. What creates your feelings are the thoughts you are having about those situations.

So nothing your LO says or nothing your LO does is actually causing...

When it comes to caring for someone with dementia, there is so much that you have to do to care for them. Many times, the things they used to do they are no longer able to do so you’ve stepped in. Today I want to talk about how your helping may actually be hurting your relationship with your loved one in the long run and what you can do about it.

Now I know some of you might be thinking, "What? How can my helping be hurting. I mean, I’m helping!" If you remember the video I did on the 3 things hurting your relationship with your loved one I talked about doing too much to help them as one of the things. Basically, the person with dementia may not believe they need the help, they may think you are treating them like a baby and in that video I talk about ways you can continue to help them without calling much attention to your help.

So I want to talk about how you can proactively improve your relationship with your loved one by getting them to help you! Here’s the...

Welcome back Careblazer!

Let’s talk vascular dementia. In this post I’ll explain: 

--What is vascular dementia

--Who is at risk for vascular dementia

--The general course of vascular dementia and how it affects the brain

As you know, there are many different types of dementia. The different types of dementia are caused by different things and can present in different ways. Vascular dementia is pretty interesting because it can present and progress quite differently. Also, it’s really common and occurs frequently with Alzheimer’s disease. If you remember from my video on 5 surprising facts on dementia- you can have more than one type of dementia.

So let’s start getting clear on what exactly vascular dementia is. First of all, the underlying source that is causing the thinking issues is vascular in nature, which is just a fancier way of saying it’s caused by a blood flow issue to the brain. So anything that negatively impacts blood...