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The fear of memory loss – how can psychologists help?

Psychology

My Health Career is pleased to publish a guest blog post by registered psychologist Julie Bajic. Julie is the Managing Director of Wise Care, a team of psychologists who have particular expertise in working with older adults.

“This week is Dementia Awareness Week, which coincides with World Alzheimer’s Day this Saturday 21 September 2013. This year’s focus is Brain Health: Making the Connections. Activities are unfolding throughout Australia and the importance of keeping your mind active is highlighted.  Regardless of our age, we all need to keep our cognitive wheels turning.

I regularly present at retirement villages and residential hostels on the importance of wellness and looking after yourself. I find that every presentation there are at least couple of participants who are particularly interested in learning about the signs of cognitive decline. These individuals will ask questions which are on everyone’s mind.  What can I do to prevent dementia? What are the early signs of dementia? What is the difference between dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease?

It is through questioning and attending wellness seminars that we can learn more about how to look after ourselves. Self-care is very important and, unfortunately,  often neglected. I hear people comment that self-care is not as important or that they are afraid of being labelled as being selfish by engaging in self-care activities. Some people even associate self-care with luxury. Self-care is fundamental in how we lead our lives and engage in Meaningful Activities. It is through good self-care that we can pick up when something is not right and prevent some of the reversible changes to our health.  Unfortunately, those early signs of cognitive decline can be ignored or brushed off. Family members and relatives also may ignore such symptoms in fear of what the underlying diagnosis could be.  Fear of declining cognitive functioning, grief and loss of anticipated future, anger, resentment and frustration all come up rather often.

To keep the cognitive wheels turning we sometimes need to step outside of our comfort zone and do something new. This week, I encourage you all to engage in a new task.  It can be something small such as going for a walk in a new area; playing Sudoku; working on a new puzzle or playing a new computer game. Do something that you have not done before. Lets improve the connection between your neural pathways, lets build new bridges and information transmitting channels.

Feel free to be silly, have fun and above all remember that your Brain Matters!”

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