Sweeney's Blogs

Rhythmical Thinking: A Stuttering Solution?

February 7, 2019September 16, 2022James Sweeney

Stuttering is one of life’s obstacles that can prove difficult to overcome. Certain types of people learn methods and techniques to help overcome stuttering, however, others can struggle. I’m going to be doing a series of blogs with methods I use to help reduce the amount I stutter. This method I like to refer to as the Rhythmical Thinking method.

During times when I stutter a lot, I always try a wide range of techniques to help reduce it. When I was younger there was a time when no matter what method I tried, I could not stop stuttering. I struggled to think of what to do and then a thought came to my head. I started thinking of a musical beat in my head. I slowly started to increase the beat when I stopped stuttering and I went back to speaking normally. I’ll go into detail about how this works after I give a bit of a background to how it worked for me.

I’ve been part of a brass band since I was very young. I learned to play the trombone when I was in year 3 in school and am still learning today. As I grew up playing in a brass band I experienced lots of different musical beats, rhythms and tempos/speeds. After playing these pieces hundreds of times you learn how to compose these beats in your own head.

Now how the Rhythmical Thinking technique works is as follows. When you start to stutter a lot you stop and think of a beat. This beat can be as fast or slow as you want it to be however I recommend starting with a slow beat. Once you have this beat in your head you can either just keep it in your head or you can tap your fingers or toes to it.

After the beat has remained constant in your head for a while start speaking in time with the beat. As you start to reduce the amount you stutter slowly increase the beat until you get back to normal. As you increase the speed ensure that you are still stuttering less. If you start to stutter more again then slow down again and try again. This should help you stop stuttering.

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a great day!

James Sweeney

Alzheimer’s: The Bookcase Analogy

February 5, 2019August 8, 2020James Sweeney

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

A Grandmother, Mother and to all a Friend

February 4, 2019January 20, 2023James Sweeney

This is a poem I made for my Grandmother, when I found out that she had Alzheimer’s Disease. The poem is a very personal one for me and can also be located on my Alzheimer’s website, Don’t Forget Me. The poem acts a nostalgia train for me going through my life and the memories that I share with my Nana.

Note: Cap is a nickname that my brother made for my grandfather 🙂

A Grandmother, a Mother and to all a friend,
A person who would inspire you to the very end.

For a person who did so much for so many,
If she needed help she would try not to ask for any,
A nurse for years and a sister to her ward,
If you ever wanted to go for a walk she would be first on board,
A strong lady who could walk for miles,
Would take you up and down the aisles,
A Grandmother, a Mother and to all a friend,
A person who would help you to the very end.

For a Nana who devoted her life to Cap,
She could make a killer bacon bap,
A devoted wife, partner and the very best friend,
The two together were the ultimate blend,
A woman who would help no matter who you were,
Who would help you see clearly if your mind was a blur,
A Grandmother, a Mother and to all a friend,
A person who you would admire to the very end.

For a Grandmother who would go for walks down the beach,
She would always share advice, never to preach,
For all the walking we did on the rocks,
She never thought to comment on my very weird crocs,
For the rock pools we would look for all day,
A task that would need us to go all around the bay,
A Grandmother, a Mother and to all a friend,
A person who would guide you to the very end.

For a woman who could make the very best scone,
Any memories of her will never be gone,
A kind patient and incredible baker,
She would not even tell me off when I was a troublemaker,
A lady who could make the tastiest teisin lap,
She always would let me steal Caps cap,
A Grandmother, a Mother and to all a friend,
A person who would inspire you to the very end.

Thanks for reading my poem dedicated to my grandmother, my best friend, my hero. If you would like to let me know what you thought of the poem, please drop me a message in the comments or through our Facebook page. Although my grandmother’s Alzheimer’s has stole the memories from her, they’ll never take them away from me!

Thanks for reading & I hope you have a lovely day!

James Sweeney

The Journey Begins

February 3, 2019August 8, 2020James Sweeney

Hello and Welcome to Sweeney’s Blogs!

I am James Sweeney and I am from South Wales. I am going to be writing weekly blogs on this page covering topics such as Mental Health, Stuttering, Stress and many more. I am aiming to upload one new blog a week talking about a new topic. For this blog, I will be using a theme that is free to use from WordPress.

I currently own and run my own website called Don’t Forget Me. This website revolves around Alzheimer’s, it talks about what it is, how you can recognise it, ways to accept it and things to do to try and get past it. Some of the blogs I will be writing will be expanding some of the points I make on the website. If you would like to visit the website please do, the link is a follows: http://www.dontforgetme.org.uk.

Otherwise please enjoy the blogs that i will be writing, if you have any questions or queries or comments about a blog feel free to contact me. The best ways would either be through the Don’t Forget Me website or email me: Sweeneyblogs@outlook.com.

Thanks and Enjoy,

James Sweeney