The husband of Fiona Phillips has shared his most important advice for dealing with someone who has dementia, three years after the shocking diagnosis of the GMB star.
Mrs. Phillips was only 61 when she discovered that she did that early Alzheimer’s In 2022, and since then her husband, former editor Martin Frizell of this morning.
The couple, who married in 1997, shares two sons who are also involved in taking care of their sick mother – whose book, remember when: my life with Alzheimer’s is today.
In one of the last chapters of the book, Mr. Frizell, 66, shares the greatest learning that he has gained from his wife’s disease, and it is advice that everyone with a loved one struggles with a degenerative brain condition can benefit.
He writes: ‘The experts say that you are not supposed to challenge someone with Alzheimer’s when they say things that are completely wrong, but it is very difficult when you are at the time and you just hope that you can get through it.
‘What should I say if she says:’ You are not my husband! “?
“It is clearly not fun – but I don’t feel hurt because I know that it doesn’t talk Fiona: it’s the disease that she got.”
Mr. Frizell continues that the most important thing to do when involved in a back and forth with a dementia patient cannot be said ‘no’.
Fiona Phillips was diagnosed with early start dementia just 61 years old
He believes it is best to keep the report – even if it is uncomfortable – to stay connected.
He said: ‘The textbooks say they never argue with a dementia patient.
“Although even before the disease you could never win a fight with Fiona, so we play along.”
The couple lives with their two sons, Nathaniel, 26 and Mackenzie, 23, who also have to entertain the frightening delusions of their mother – the most recent of these requires Mr. Frizell to pretend his wife thrown away from her parents.
During a recent performance at this morning he explained: ‘Fiona and I leave as if I am taking her home.
“We walk around the block while she explains loudly:” I will never forgive you to fool me “and passers -by; Then we are home again, where she goes inside and greeting Mackenzie as if she didn’t see him for days. ‘
Both parents of the former presenter died of Alzheimer’s and Mrs. Phillips himself is an ambassador for the charity institutions of Alzheimer’s – not that she can remember.
But Mr. Frizell believes that although they didn’t even talk about her illness since she was diagnosed, she always unknowingly thinks about it.
Fiona Phillips with her husband Martin Frizell who has since taken a step back from his job as an editor to help take care of Fiona
Since her diagnosis, she has usually stayed out of the public eye
Before she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, Mr. Frizell said that the former Good Morning Britain presenter was the life and soul of the party.
And despite seeing the diagnosis when his wife was increasingly withdrawn and frizel said anxiously when it finally came, it was “terrible.”
‘You realize that there are around 70,000 people who have Alzheimer’s with early start and that there is not much help.
‘As a family we are just a bit left to get through and at some point we need more support, but there is really nothing.
“You become quite invisible,” he told the Telegraph in a recent interview.
“If you mention the word Alzheimer’s or dementia, it brings it forward and it is disturbing because she knows how it goes,” he also wrote in Mrs Phillips’ new book.
Yet Mr. Frizell says, trying to protect her against the harsh reality of the situation, nobody is perfect.
‘It feels like I have read a million books and online articles about how I can best deal with a partner with Alzheimer’s.
‘A part of the advice I agree with – but other bits that I am not so sure of. I think you just have to trust your instinct and deal with everything you are thrown as well as possible at that time.
‘By trying to be the perfect partner of Alzheimer’s, you are simply even more pressure on yourself if there is so much. But every day is different. ‘
More than 150 million people will live with dementia by 2050, suggest estimates – more than double the number today.
Memory loss, thinking and reasoning problems and language problems are common early symptoms of the condition, which then worsen over time.
Mr. Frizell’s moving honest advice about how to live with the disease is because new research suggests that staying positive can reduce the risk of memory loss in middle -aged.
Researchers who write in magazine aging and mental health followed more than 10,000 people older than 50 and discovered that those with a higher levels of well -being had better scores on memory tests.
They also reported a greater sense of control, independence and freedom to make choices than other people.
Although the link was small, researchers suggested that it was important.
It is currently thought that around 900,000 British have the memory robber disorder. But the scientists at the University College London estimate that this will rise to 1.7 million within two decades if people live longer
A milestone study last year also suggested that almost half of all cases of Alzheimer’s could be prevented by tackling 14 childhood lifestyle factors.
World leaders have demonstrated two new risk factors loss of risk factors and high cholesterol behind the disease that are in line with existing factors, ranging from social isolation to obesity, which experts have established as the risk that a person would undergo dementia.
Experts claimed that the study, published in the prestigious magazine The Lancet, delivered more hope than ‘ever before’ that the memory-robbing condition that can be tackled the lives of millions.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia and affects 982,000 people in the UK.
Alzheimer UK analysis of Alzheimer’s UK research showed that 74,261 people died of dementia in 2022 compared to 69.178 a year earlier, making it the biggest murderer in the country.
Alzheimer’s Society is a charity that offers support for anyone affected by dementia Via their website alzheimers.org.uk and Dementia Support Line on 0333 150 3456.
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