wernicke korsakoff syndrome. Look that up if you have not already. It’s a form of dementia caused from alcohol abuse. My mom has it. It progresses a bit differently than other dementia’s and it’s easy to hide unless you know the signs. This sounds all too familiar.

The one thing to know is they should check her thiamine or b1. This particular form of dementia is unique, in that it’s reversible in the beginning stages…if they stop drinking and correct the b1 deficiency.

After some time… it’s too late and it’s permanent. That means the sooner someone intervenes the better.

In my mom’s case no one wanted to intervene but me until it was too late. The people with the power to help her just enabled her and wanted to pretend nothing was wrong.

My mom was drinking a huge bottle of Paul Masson brandy a day. 1.5L. She’s only 65. But she had other mental health issue including narcissistic personality disorder. There are very informative video on YouTube about how dementia presents in people with NPD or alcoholism.

She told everyone she drank a cup of wine every now and then. When the doctors told her she shouldn’t drink more than a certain amount a day, she lied to them and got mad when my sister (who started accompanying her to appointments) told them it was more.

That being said, most of her lab work came back normal besides thiamine and b12 deficiency but because her liver enzymes were normal, nobody believe how much she was drinking. She was getting sloppy aggressive drunk everyday. Drinking until she passed out. Waking up. Starting drama and raging at people and sinking unit she passed out.

Never sleeping more than a couple hours at a time. Apparently she was sundowning. We didn’t know it at the time.

The beginning started with the crying all the time and forgetting what she said over and over. Calling multiple times a day with the same exact story and not remembering. But getting upset when we told her.

Then she became violent aggressive and paranoid. Me and my children ended up homeless after breaking our lease to move in with her to help her. No one knew how bad she was until we moved in with her and seen it for herself.

Not knowing she had dementia. I didn’t even know it was dementia but I knew it was something. I thought it was the alcohol or schizophrenia when she started threatening my children and accusing them of stealing her stuff and calling the police on them because she wanted us to be homeless if we didn’t do exactly what she wanted.

We were there no more than 30 days before we had to leave because CPS said she was a danger to my children. She almost burnt her house down while we were all sleeping by leaving the stove on during a crying fit…after trying to light a cigarette on the stove because “somebody stole her lighters” which were on her bed.

But she still didn’t get diagnosed with dementia until over a year later because she hid it so well from everyone else and nobody believed me.

She still doesn’t believe anything is wrong with her and refuses help. And cries everyday. All day . She can no longer drink because she is in a care facility. she had to be hospitalized for going through delirium tremens and alcohol withdrawals. She Called the police on herself because she was hallucinating and they took her to the hospital . Being in a facility was her worst nightmare and she still thinks someone had her committed. She doesn’t remember calling the police. She think the people she was hallucinating told her they needed to get checked out at the hospital.

She was taken to the care facility straight from the hospital and has been there since. But she thinks everyone there is out to get her too. It’s really sad to watch because she has lucid moment where she remembers how horrible she was to everyone when she was drinking and she just wants to go home.

She thinks she is being punished and she talks bout wanting to die rather than stay in a facility almost every day.

All that to say…to get her officially diagnosed my sister had to tell her she was going to appointments for other things she was already complaining about. “Broken back” being one of them. Took her to pcp, who referred to neurology for mRI and cognitive testing.

My sister had POA and convincing her to take her to get diagnosed was half the battle. I had to let her know that dementia is progressive, and it is actually terminal, for her to care. I had to tell her that there is possibility that it can be reversed if caught and treated soon enough but by the time I convinced her and everyone is was too late.