Paranoia and Dementia Is Challenging For Care Givers

Ma, looking for Heaven's Bus and Dad

My mom is paranoid, she believes that real people and hallucinations are out to get her.  She believes that the nurses at the Adult Day Care program are up to no good and that they are trying to poison her so that she is committed to a nursing home against her will.

I pack her lunch every day.  I only give her food that I know won't cause her any weird behaviors, like chasing after Heaven's Bus so that she can hitch a ride or better, talk to my dad who's been dead since 1979.

I've been experimenting with new breads for sandwiches that I make for her.  The carbohydrate count is important, anything over 15g will send her chasing her hallucinations or believing something totally off the wall.

I've asked the nurses to open her food in front of her or she won't eat it.  I let them know that she is suspicious of them and what they might put in her food.  The only thing that I can think is that my mom is worried that she is in a hospital during the day and that we are all in cahoots in an attempt to get her admitted to a nursing home.

What can I do to calm her suspicions that she believes with all of her heart?  The power of belief is very strong and appears to be even stronger when the mind is demented.

My immediate solution...  I am making her a new hypnosis recording, one with customized phrases that will penetrate her subconscious mind and ease her paranoia.  I have been listening to everything that she says, trying to make sense out of her fear.  I need to create positive phrases that she will believe; new beliefs that will replace her suspicious thoughts.

What I am hearing between her words is that she's frightened of nursing homes and being committed to one.  Seeing her brother in a new nursing home last weekend seems to have brought on more paranoia as far as her fear of nursing homes is concerned.  She can't put her head around the fact that the day program is keeping her out of a home.

My mom, she won't eat or drink anything that the nurses give her at the day program.  She believes that she saw them putting something in her food.  As all Care Giver's for an LBD patient knows, there is no changing their minds; going against what they say will only lead to upsets.

Dead people... she's obsessed with the dead.  She believes that they are real, that I need to feed them and that she needs to take care of all the children.  She sees so many children, it makes me wonder what may have triggered hallucinations with kids.  Little boys, little girls, all of them needing help.  My dad, he has children, lots of children in Heaven according to my mom.  She tells me that I have brothers and sisters that are babies and even a sister that's 18.  She gets angry with me because I don't know their names.

Validating her hallucinations is tiring.  I repeat the same thing over and over again but it's not the answer she wants to hear so she tells me that I'm wrong.  I then tell her that I have no idea, that I can't see them but she can... none of this works.

My mom believes that I know more than I'm telling her.  I have begun to tell her that I can't tell her anything because it's against  the Universal Laws of Nature for the dead to be part of our world of the living.  My mom, she doesn't believe this explanation, she wants to talk to her dead people and wants me to make it happen for her.

My mom is paranoid, a symptom of her illness.  Hypnosis has worked for her in the past.  Today, I will write a customized hypnosis script for her that will be geared toward easing her fears.  I'll mix it with music and have her listen to the recording every night before bed.  Of course I'll report the results as well as the reasons why I created the phrases that will be part of the hypnosis script.

Paranoia and dementia is challenging for care givers.