First off sometimes I feel like I have to deal with the worst of the dementia cases with my mother. I have even had doctors tell me they can not figure out my mothers behavior all the time. She has been kicked out of over 5 SNF and is now in a special ward of the hospital that specializes with dementia, psychosis, and other troubling mind disorders. My mother seems completely psychotic now and never was before this disease she was loving and completely normal. I am starting to feel like my mom is more psychotic then dementia like. She yells at the top of her lungs for minimal of 4 hours straight to which the caregivers give her an ambien to calm her down. She recently started having extreme delusions telling me the nurses are raping her (totally untrue), that the nurses are plotting to kill her, she told me that I need to make sure no one is following me out of the hospital as they are trying to kill me. She begs me to call the police. I tried reasoning with her to no avail so now I pretend to call the cops. What is going on? I am so lost to this behavior sometimes I wonder if it is something else has anyone had this expierence
You mentioned the nurses give your Mom ambien? Ambien is used mainly as a sleeping pill for those who has insomnia. Ambien has been know to cause a lot of strange side effects in those who are sensitive to the medicine... makes me wonder if that medicine is causing the psychotic episodes.
I think a lot of people do deal with this kind of behavior. I would discuss it with her doctors, but most people that I know just try to placate the patient and say whatever will bring them peace and comfort. Trying to convince them that they are wrong is pointless. I'd work on being calm and redirecting when possible. Of course, it sounds like nothing may work as long as she is so anxious. I would think they will work with medications to help ease her mental pain. I'd ask about something more than Ambien. She is seeking a Geriatric psychiatrist, right?
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