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Please Help, Mental Confusion & Disorientation

Posted By Jenny N. (Laurens, Sc) on 04/13/2017

My stepmother is in her mid 60s & reportedly all of a sudden became very mentally disoriented as well as confused. Her son that she lives with stated that she was fine until late one afternoon as she went to the bathroom & locked herself in there & he could not get her to come out. Other family members were contacted & had to force open the door to find her very confused, disoriented, unable to identify those family members as well as not making any sense in her statements. She was taken to our local hospital where she was admitted for several days & released without a cause or diagnosis. She was referred to a local doctors office where as he has not been able to diagnose a cause & stated she does not have dementia nor Alzheimer's but does have swelling of her brain although he doesn't know why. This doctor has referred her to a neurologist which she will see next week. I went to visit her today & I was heart broken by her physical appearance & mental status. I have not visited with her very often as she & my father have been divorced for many years but I have a brother that is her son also although he is not the son that she lives with. She knew who I was but she did not make sense in most of our conversation & I'm not sure of how to explain it but hopefully someone on here knows what I'm trying to say, looking into her eyes was like looking at something absent with no end as though they were empty. In most people, when you look into their eyes, it stops & you see life in there but I have seen others with mental problems that have this same endless, empty look in their eyes as she does now. Her pupils are small though & in in most mentally ill people I have seen, their pupils appear to be quite large.

She has suffered severe anxiety for most of her life & has ALWAYS used alcohol to escape & lessen that anxiety except when she knew she had to drive at which time she would take half a Xanax for the anxiety in order to be able to drive without having to drive while under the influence of alcohol. She did not like taking the Xanax so only took those when having to drive which she did not do very often. She also has smoked cigarettes since childhood & did become alcohol dependent after so long of consumption. She has been mainly relying on the alcohol as her main diet, rarely eating a meal & maybe just taking a few bites of food a day for quite some time as I am told. After being detoxed from the alcohol & released from the hospital, her son tells her that she quit smoking years ago which she told me today is not true & she wants some beer & cigarettes. Her son lets her have non alcohol beer such as Odouls & puts a very low dose nicotine patch on her daily although this is not satisfying her as she has been caught trying to light q-tips & pencils by the kitchen stove thinking she can smoke those. I am quite sure she is very deficient in vitamins & minerals & has been for a long time.

I want to help her in any way that I can but I don't know where to begin & I'm afraid of causing her more harm so the best thing I know to do is to come to this site & ask for help.

As stated earlier, symptoms are; severe anxiety, alcoholism (no longer gets alcohol), confusion with some moments of clarity, disorientation, empty looking eyes with small pupils, memory loss, paranoia as in saying her family members are doing strange things to her that they are not doing, very low nutritional diet, refusal to bathe (someone cut her hair in back to her scalp because her hair became matted up due to lack of care & left 2 long strands of hair on each side of her face as to hide the fact that her hair was cut off), living conditions in home are just plain nasty with trash, tires, dirty dishes, molded foods in fridge & clutter in almost every inch with barely enough space to walk for which she was never a nasty unkept person, & arms that are covered in bruise looking spots that I have seen on older people possibly caused by thinning of the skin but I don't know.

With all of this, she was still laughing & does not appear to be distraught as I'm assuming she doesn't realize what is happening to her however she appears to be angry at the son she lives with, accusing him of doing things to her, lying to her, & stealing her cigarettes. Doctors are saying her brain is swelling but they don't know why & that she doesn't have dementia nor Alzheimer's. Please, if anyone has any knowledge & experience with this, help me help this woman. I am very sorry this is so long & I greatly appreciate any & every one that takes the time to read it.

Thank you Earth Clinic for such a wonderful & informative site.

Replied by Ian N. (Franklin, Tn) on 04/14/2017

Has your loved one been checked for bacterial pneumonia? I have a relative who went overnight from fully functioning to acting as if she had dementia/Alzheimer's due to low oxygen stemming from bacterial pneumonia. She had none of the classic symptoms (fever, cough, mucus). The symptoms depend on the type of bacteria growing in the lungs as well as the age of the person. We now instruct the hospital to check for bacterial pneumonia if she starts exhibiting dementia type behavior.

Replied by Timh (Ky) on 04/16/2017

Looks like a case of general nutrition deficiency, which would lead to infections etc.

Start with a high quality health food store brand Multivitamin/Mineral with every meal, as well as improving diet. Less sugar and saturated fat and more quality protein especially fish like Mackeral, Salmon, and Sardines. Take Coconut Oil softegels or cook or add to food.

Replied by Hisjewel (America, New York) on 04/17/2017

Prayer and a Multi-Vitamin Yes!

I can confirm this can work. My grandmother was up in her eighties when we noticed her a great loss of memory or dementia. Her doctor put her on a Multi-vitamin. I gladly added the prayer.

Her memory restored better than mine.

HisJewel

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