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I don't know if any UK forum members just watched this - but what a great programme. The first in a series.
My Dad developed early onset Alzheimer's and descended into its worst state - a nothing state - over a number of years. That's why I was interested in the subject.
I tried to read one of Terry Pratchett's books years ago and gave up. Nothing against Pratchett. I'm a very impatient reader and I find reading a slog. A bore. I give up on most books. I hardly ever read for pleasure, in fact.
So I came to Pratchett on BBC2 this evening knowing hardly anything about the man.
This programme was as enlightening and entertaining as Stephen Fry on Being Bipolar. Pratchett was quietly very funny, dry, canny, aware, intelligent.
The part that was the most true, for me, was when he met people at a support group who had declined more than him. (And there is potentially a hell of a lot further to descend than those people). The focus on our MEMORY being the key to everything we do. The sadness of the person he spoke to who was verbally coherent, but who was no longer able to read, to write, to play the piano, to garden without assistance.
One of Pratchett's antidotes seemed to be to keep very busy and try to stay creative. You saw him at one of his own conventions reading to his fans and then getting lost or too tired to continue.
It was quite moving, and I admire the man for publicising research into the condition, and for allowing himself to be filmed as a guinea pig.
I might even try one of his books again in Summer because of warming to him on screen.
The thing that strikes me about Alzheimer's - and about a range of conditions including depression - is that global counselling (as it were) doesn't work. You can't find two cases of conditions like these that will be exactly the same because they are so personality-based.
Also, Alzheimer's really requires the sufferer to have a supportive partner or buddy. It must be a nightmare for anyone beginning to suffer with this condition who lives alone.
I'll watch the other programmes with great interest.
I'd say this is worth catching on BBC Replay if you didn't see it. So members in the US and elsewhere could view it online.
Not in the programme, but Jools Holland - a cigar man - advocates a shot of nicotine a day as a defence against Alzheimer's. I can't remember where he got that from, but I - we - must agree with him unwittingly.
I savoured a Padron 1926 during the programme, and as my wife is away in Nottingham overnight, I've decided to go for nicotine shot two with a Punch Punch.
My Dad developed early onset Alzheimer's and descended into its worst state - a nothing state - over a number of years. That's why I was interested in the subject.
I tried to read one of Terry Pratchett's books years ago and gave up. Nothing against Pratchett. I'm a very impatient reader and I find reading a slog. A bore. I give up on most books. I hardly ever read for pleasure, in fact.
So I came to Pratchett on BBC2 this evening knowing hardly anything about the man.
This programme was as enlightening and entertaining as Stephen Fry on Being Bipolar. Pratchett was quietly very funny, dry, canny, aware, intelligent.
The part that was the most true, for me, was when he met people at a support group who had declined more than him. (And there is potentially a hell of a lot further to descend than those people). The focus on our MEMORY being the key to everything we do. The sadness of the person he spoke to who was verbally coherent, but who was no longer able to read, to write, to play the piano, to garden without assistance.
One of Pratchett's antidotes seemed to be to keep very busy and try to stay creative. You saw him at one of his own conventions reading to his fans and then getting lost or too tired to continue.
It was quite moving, and I admire the man for publicising research into the condition, and for allowing himself to be filmed as a guinea pig.
I might even try one of his books again in Summer because of warming to him on screen.
The thing that strikes me about Alzheimer's - and about a range of conditions including depression - is that global counselling (as it were) doesn't work. You can't find two cases of conditions like these that will be exactly the same because they are so personality-based.
Also, Alzheimer's really requires the sufferer to have a supportive partner or buddy. It must be a nightmare for anyone beginning to suffer with this condition who lives alone.
I'll watch the other programmes with great interest.
I'd say this is worth catching on BBC Replay if you didn't see it. So members in the US and elsewhere could view it online.
Not in the programme, but Jools Holland - a cigar man - advocates a shot of nicotine a day as a defence against Alzheimer's. I can't remember where he got that from, but I - we - must agree with him unwittingly.
I savoured a Padron 1926 during the programme, and as my wife is away in Nottingham overnight, I've decided to go for nicotine shot two with a Punch Punch.