The Bookcase Analogy is a theory I first found through a video, which was created by The Alzheimer’s Society . The theory is one of the many theories used to describe how Alzheimer’s affects a persons mind. The Bookcase Analogy is a great way to describe and visualise Alzheimer, as well as the effect that it has on your life.
The Bookcase Analogy is an excellent theory used to describe the affect Alzheimer’s has on a persons mind. The theory starts out like this: Imagine a persons mind as a Bookcase. As you get with every Bookcase, there are several shelves on the Bookcase. In our example each shelve is a decade(10 years).
Now imagine the Bookcase gets damaged. When books fall off the bookcase they are lost and/or misplaced, this is similar to how Alzheimer’s affects the mind. The books in this instance correspond to memories. If they fall off the shelf they are lost or missing. This leaves gaps in the shelves and or memories. This can lead to certain people having to relive the death of a loved one or numerous other tragedies that have happened in their life. This can be very upsetting for the sufferer.
These absences of memories can be very confusing to the person who has Alzheimer’s. These can lead to them having enlarged emotions. What I mean by this is that certain emotions can be amplified by this stress. Sufferers can become very anxious, stressed, jumpy or any other sort of emotion caused by this stress.
Books can also be swapped on a bookcase. This is an excellent way to link a bookcase to Alzheimer’s. The swapping of books can be linked to how Alzheimer’s meddles with people memories. If a bookcase if damaged or the books are swapped it can cause great confusion and can possibly lead to violence not usually seen by some people who are suffering with Alzheimer’s.
This damaging of the bookcase can also lead go the sufferer getting confused about how old they are. People can suddenly think they’re 30 years old when they’re 70 or they could think that they are 80 years old when they are only 40. This confusion can also relate to mood swings. People can get really annoyed that they cannot remember certain memories and it cab lead to them becoming very angry or upset very suddenly. Although these mood swings are usually temporary, they can cause a great deal of unrest for the casualty and of course surrounding family and friends.
Thank you for reading and I hope you have learned something new today. Any feedback on this blog would be appreciated. you can either contact me via the contact form provided on the website or via the Facebook page.
James Sweeney
“It occurred to me that at one point it was like I had two diseases – one was Alzheimer’s, and the other was knowing I had Alzheimer’s” – Terry Pratchett
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