Why do some people living with dementia make things up?

Can I ask you “what is reality?” Defining “reality” has puzzled philosophers for eons. Do we all experience the world as the same uniform experience? Or do we perceive things differently? How can we know?

We can never enter the mind of another person to know what she or he is experiencing, and whether that is the same as our experience. All we can do is know our own reality. And bear in mind that people can experience the same event differently, it all depends on what is important to the individual.

That said, we all create a reality that we can share. If a person living with dementia seems to be “making stuff up”, it may be because the area of the brain that is affected relates to episodic memory, where the memories are stored related to particular events and experiences. However, the person may not have “forgotten"; the information may be stored, it is just being retrieved differently. What I find useful is to listen to what is being said. Think about where that could be coming from. What is similar? What could be another interpretation? Think laterally, not literally. It’s also useful to think that the person may be creating their own reality now, a reality they may have wanted to live in the first place but due to “life” they were never able to. This new reality may be very real, so real, there is little point in denying it. And why would you? Who are we to question another person’s reality and perceptions of events? I found it useful to think that what the person may be telling me could be a dream. It’s not making anything up, it is just a confusion of conscious thought and unconscious experience. Either way, the dream may be teaching us something, and have valuable information that can help us. Engage with the current reality and see where it takes you.

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