Living with Alzheimer's Rough on Kids Too

“It is hard to live with her at times because she forgets who I am,” said Armoni. “I am afraid of the effects of the disease and I hope I don’t get it. The effects of Alzheimer’s are like she will forget where she put the mail and won’t remember where she was standing.”

“It is scary knowing I can get it no matter what I do,” Armoni said. 

Her grandmother’s Alzheimer’s does not affect her view on her grandmother but it does make building a relationship difficult. 

“A typical interaction with her would be us talking and then she would go in the kitchen and come back and forget who I am and what we were talking about.”

“A happy moment would be when we went half of a day in a conversation,” said Armoni. “A sad moment was when she would not answer me till I told her who I was and what I was doing in her home and that really hurt me.”

Alzheimer’s disease is a brain disorder that kills nerve cells and can cause death if left untreated. Though it is not a normal part of aging, it is common among elderly people. 

AFA teens, which is part of the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, raises awareness about the disease and provides support for teens who have been affected. Though it is painful for teens to see loved ones forget them, it is helpful for them to meet other teens who are going through a similar experience. Groups like AFA teens provide support by raising awareness of issues that affect these teens. 

“My dad had it, my mother took care of him. Now I am aware and am making healthy lifestyle choices,” said Carol Stienberg, president of AFA teens and The Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. 

Steinberg’s experience has taught her that teens can feel socially isolated. AFA teens gives these teens friends who can give them help even when they are reluctant to ask for it. 

“Anyone can get it just as much as they can get cancer. By living with a family member with Alzheimer’s gave me respect for the caregivers and consider them heros,” said Stienberg.

Stienberg also said people should be more empathetic. It’s important to recognize it’s the disease and not the person. Her dad passed away 13 years ago and had Alzheimer’s for 12 years. 

“He was very vibrant, it was heartbreaking [to see] the toll it took on my mother,” she said. Once her father forgot that she was his daughter. He knew she was close to him, but thought she was his sister.

They have good memories too. “I remember when my kids were making a family tree and they were asking their grandfather for help on where his parents came from and he remembered and said his parents were from Russia.”

Alzheimer’s affects teens because teens don’t want to be forgotten by someone they love. The disease affects people in different ways so there is no typical day or interaction.

Nzingha Keyes, 16, lives with her grandfather who has Alzheimer’s. “My grandfather having Alzheimer’s helps me open up more instead of shutting down like other teens,” said Keyes. 

She can openly talk to others and seek support from her friends. She’s happy about the opportunity to spend so much time with her grandfather, who is 75 and has had the disease for five years. 

“I am afraid of getting it, but if I get it I get it,” she said. 

It does not affect her view of her grandfather; it only makes her watch over him more. What scares her most about the disease is the thought that she might forget her mother or friends.

 â€œThat would hurt me the most,” she said.