Dealing with Obsessive Compulsive Behavior

My first two articles on dealing with behavior problems in loved ones with Alzheimer's and other related dementia disorders touched on inappropriate cursing and inappropriate nose wiping. In this, my third article about Alzheimer's Disease and related dementia disorders, I'm going to address obsessive compulsive behaviors.

If you've read either of my first two articles (see the links at the end of this article), you would have met Grandma. Grandma has Alzheimer's Disease and we are caring for her in our home. Granny is a wonderful person, but her Alzheimer's disease has caused her to develop some behaviors that are difficult to deal with. Care taking is always a challenge, but behaviors that wear on your nerves make it even more difficult.

Grammy had always been an intelligent mentally active person, and even with Alzheimer's Disease, this still shines through. Before her illness, she often filled her days with reading. After she became ill with Alzheimer's Disease it became more difficult for her to concentrate as she read, so she preferred to watch television.

Now, she has trouble concentrating while watching television. Because she can't concentrate, she finds a different, and extremely obnoxious, way of entertaining herself with the television (and sometimes books and magazines too). We call it the "Red Green Show" after that PBS comedy show, because Grammy goes, "Red, green, blue, blue, green, green, green, red..." (all day long...)

Now instead of quietly watching television following the stories, Grammy has kind of made up her own "game" of television watching. Imagine watching "Sesame Street" with your child or when you were a kid. They encouraged children to point out the colors and count along with them. Now imagine if your child did this with every single show they watched, all day long.