Shared from dailycaring.com.
Why wouldn’t someone believe they have dementia?
Family caregivers often ask “how do you tell someone they have dementia”? And in some cases, the answer may be that you simply can’t.
Damage in the brain can cause people with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, stroke, brain tumors, and other cognitive impairments to believe that there’s nothing wrong with them.
When that happens, it’s called anosognosia (pronounced ah-no-sog-NOH-zee-uh, hear it here). The word literally means “to not know a disease” and it’s much more than being in denial.
We explain what it means when someone has anosognosia and doesn’t believe they have dementia and why it’s different from denial.