The connection between dementia and anxiety | Elaine Eshbaugh | TEDxUniversity of Northern Iowa

Quick Overview

Elaine Eshbaugh explains that anxiety is often rooted in a person's perception of reality, which is severely affected in individuals with dementia, leading to anxiety when their reality conflicts with the shared reality of others, and she demonstrates this by having the audience simulate impaired peripheral vision to understand how easily environmental cues are missed.

Key Points: Anxiety in individuals with dementia often arises when their subjective reality conflicts with the shared reality of others, causing distress when they cannot process expected environmental cues (0:14, 1:53). Dementia impacts nearly everything the brain controls, including movement, mood, personality, perception, speech, and sensation (1:17). The speaker suggests that when anxiety spikes, cognitive functions like processing sensory input decrease (0:56). Eshbaugh uses a visual simulation exercise, asking the audience to press their index fingers gently against their eyes to simulate restricted peripheral vision, demonstrating how easily one might miss information like a clock ticking on a wall (10:24, 10:34). When the speaker's grandmother, who has dementia, experiences anxiety, she may withdraw or become argumentative because the world doesn't make sense to her brain (2:28, 3:33). The speaker notes that people with dementia might struggle to prioritize sound or have double vision, further complicating their perception (6:57, 11:52). The core message is that caregivers and others need to change their culture to be more empathetic and focus on supporting the person's reality rather than constantly correcting it (8:45, 9:29).

Context: Elaine Eshbaugh, Founder/Director of Dementia Simulation House and Professor of Gerontology, delivers a TEDx talk focusing on the relationship between dementia and anxiety. She uses personal anecdotes, including interactions with her grandmother, to illustrate how the cognitive and sensory impairments caused by dementia lead to anxiety when the individual's perception of reality clashes with their environment or with the expectations of others.