Dementia, Alzheimer’s and Us: A Reflection from David
Dementia has been recognised as a distinct condition of aging since ancient times, evolving from a generalised sign of old age into modern, specific neurocognitive diagnoses.
Ancient and Classical Views
Ancient Egypt (c. 2000 BC): Healers recognised that advanced age could bring severe memory loss, though they believed the heart was the seat of thought.
Classical Greece and Rome: Thinkers like Solon, Plato and Horace viewed significant mental decline in old age as a natural, unavoidable part of life rather than a specific medical pathology.
Evolution of the Medical Concept
Etymology: the word dementia comes from the Latin demens, meaning “out of one’s mind.”
18th and 19th centuries: physicians began categorising mental decline as a “medical disease,” an abnormal condition that harms the body or mind and stops normal function.
Dementia is the most talked about mental health issue in Ireland today (September 2026), where and when this tragic condition strikes families at their core, namely parents and grandparents, and in more recent times, children. For many it is a taboo subject, as no one wants to be associated with it, as it may be in the family gene pool. Oh, I could be next?
I am not qualified to discuss it in deep detail, as I, a stroke patient, reside in a nursing home, where there are 40 such patients. They and I mingle together on a daily basis. These are the nicest, gentlest people, mostly unaware of where they are, lost souls in a field of fog, knowing no one except their own reflections in the glass of the pictures or mirrors along the hallways. If they don’t recognise themselves, they spend hours talking to their own reflections, assuming it to be a brother or sister, long since gone.
Bottom line, they are all happy and well cared for. None are abandoned. We are all butterflies here, the same but different. It can be a stigma that young dating couples have to cope with. There is one rule for all: there is no remote control for us humans. Just get up and do it for yourself.
So What Is Alzheimer’s? Dementia vs Alzheimer’s
It’s a question worth answering properly, because the two words get used interchangeably, and they are not quite the same thing.
Dementia is not a specific disease. It is an umbrella term for a decline in mental ability serious enough to interfere with daily life, affecting memory, thinking and behaviour. Several different conditions can cause it, including Alzheimer’s disease, vascular disease, Lewy body disease and frontotemporal degeneration.
Alzheimer’s disease is one specific cause of dementia, a chronic disease that gradually destroys brain cells. It is by far the most common cause, accounting for somewhere between 60 and 80 percent of dementia cases.
Put simply, every case of Alzheimer’s is a form of dementia, but not every case of dementia is Alzheimer’s. Knowing the difference matters less for the people living it day to day, as David writes above, than the care, patience and love shown to them. But it’s worth understanding all the same.
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