Dementia: Staying Positive Despite the Diagnosis
The idea that some people can stay positive after receiving a dementia diagnosis seems surprising to many, yet when faced with adversity we have only two choices — make the best of what is in front of us, or live with negativity.
No one is suggesting that living with a positive outlook after being given a diagnosis for any serious disease is easy, but negative thinking is risky for your overall health, while positive thinking has health benefits.
Some would say that people who stay positive in the face of chronic or terminal disease are in denial. That is not true. What these positive people understand is that a diagnosis is just a diagnosis. When you first learn you have dementia, you won’t go home any less capable than you were when you went into the doctor’s office, so why not go for the best life you can have?
When I think of the people I admire for going forward with a positive outlook on their journey with Alzheimer’s, there are three who come most quickly to mind.
Harry Urban has lived with dementia for well over a decade. He shares about his life on Facebook at Forget Me Not — Lewy Body Dementia and Following a Dream: World Without Dementia. Harry doesn’t sugar coat his story — at times sharing his frustration with people telling him that he can’t possibly have dementia because he’s lived such a wonderful life with it for so long. But more often, he focuses on the positives, showing stunning images of his woodworking as well as other accomplishments, while he joking good-naturedly about some of his limitations. Harry is a shining example of how a person can live positively with dementia.
Harry even helped create a free cookbook titled “Forget Me Not: 2017 Recipes”…
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