Welcome to the SeriesWelcome to the Me with Dementia Talking About… weekly series.
Each Wednesday, I share an excerpt from my book—Me With Dementia Talking About—where I share reflections from the perspective of someone living with dementia. These gentle reflections are designed to help caregivers, family members, friends, and healthcare professionals better understand what dementia may feel like from the inside.
Whether you’re joining us for the first time or have been following along from the beginning, I’m glad you’re here.
How Different Dementias Travel Different Roads
“You might think all dementias look the same — forgetfulness, confusion, a few lost keys here and there. But no, my dear. Dementia is not one road — it’s a whole tangle of country lanes, winding through different parts of the brain-town I showed you earlier. Each type has its own favorite route, its own detours, its own mischief.
Let me take you on a little road trip through them.
Alzheimer’s Disease: The Fading Map
This one usually starts in Memory Lane — that hippocampus neighborhood we talked about. At first, it’s like misplacing your mental notebook. New memories just won’t stick. You remember the 1950s better than this morning’s breakfast.
As Alzheimer’s travels, it moves from memory to language, then to reasoning, then to orientation. It quietly erases the labels on the map — first the street names, then the landmarks. That’s why people with Alzheimer’s might know who they love but not why they’re standing in the kitchen.
It’s a slow, wandering traveler. Gentle at first, but persistent.
Lewy Body Dementia: The Unpredictable Traveler
This road feels like driving through fog that lifts and settles again without warning. Some days are clear; others are confusing.
Lewy Body Dementia (that’s my traveling companion, by the way) likes to play tricks in the visual and movement neighborhoods.
One moment, my neurons are sending crisp, clear messages — I can joke, reason, maybe even make breakfast. The next moment, everything flickers. My attention drifts, my muscles freeze, or I see things that aren’t really there.
It’s like my brain’s traffic lights are out of sync — red, green, yellow, all flashing at once. Some of the roads even lead back to Parkinson’s territory, where the motor neurons move slow, the gait shuffles, and my body doesn’t always obey my brain’s commands.
Vascular Dementia: The Road with Detours and Dead Ends
Vascular dementia doesn’t creep quietly — it strikes like a sudden storm. Little strokes or blockages cut off oxygen to parts of the brain-town, leaving potholes and road closures behind.
That’s why this kind of dementia often comes in steps — you see a sudden change, then stability for a while, then another sharp drop.
Which neighborhood gets damaged depends on which road lost power. If the frontal lobe is hit, reasoning goes. If the parietal area is struck, coordination falters. It’s unpredictable — like a road with detours that appear overnight.
Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD): The Loud Neighbor
FTD doesn’t start in memory at all. It begins in the frontal and temporal neighborhoods — where behavior, personality, and language live.
That’s why people with FTD might seem perfectly sharp at first, but their filters fade. They may say things that shock you or act impulsively. Some versions of FTD attack speech itself — words vanish mid-thought, replaced by frustration and silence.
It’s not that they’ve stopped caring; it’s that their “manners and meaning” circuits shorted out first.
Parkinson’s Disease Dementia: The Slow March
Parkinson’s starts deep in the motor circuits — the part that keeps movement smooth and steady. Tremors, stiffness, and balance problems come first. But over time, the damage spreads to thinking and memory areas, too.
It’s like a slow-moving parade that begins in the body but eventually winds its way up into the mind. The physical and mental symptoms start dancing together — often out of rhythm.
Mixed Dementia: The Wandering Traveler
Sometimes, the brain doesn’t choose just one path. It takes several at once. Alzheimer’s plus Vascular. Lewy Body plus Alzheimer’s. It’s like having two GPS systems arguing over directions — both wrong, both loud.
Mixed dementia can be confusing because symptoms overlap and shift, depending on which neighborhood is struggling that day.
So, Which Road Am I On?
Each type of dementia drives a little differently, but they all share one truth: the road isn’t straight. There are good days and bad, calm weather and sudden storms.
And while the map may fade, I still travel with you. The parts of my brain that handle logic or memory may falter, but the parts that feel love, comfort, music, and kindness still sparkle. Those roads stay open the longest.
So walk with me — slowly, gently — and don’t worry if the signs have changed. The route may be unpredictable, but we’re still on this road together.”
Continue the Journey
Thank you for reading this week’s chapter from Me with Dementia Talking About…
This series follows the book in order, one chapter each week, making it easy to read from beginning to end.
