Prepare Yourself for Odd Alzheimer’s Behavior

One of the many things no one prepared me for was how Alzheimer’s causes people to do and say some very odd things. These aren’t forgetful things but they are cognitive and weird things. What also makes them so odd is that my Mom never saw them as odd and she only started doing these things when she got Alzheimer’s.

Below are just a few examples of things my Mom did that were just plain odd, and they are things she only did after she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.  

Rubber bands — everywhere

Everywhere you go in my Mom’s kitchen, things are wrapped tight in rubber bands. You want a spoon? Good luck taking off all the rubberbands to get one. 

Frozen salad

One day, I opened her freezer to check the dates on all the frozen food she had and I saw a bag of salad. I asked her why there was salad in the freezer and she didn’t think anything was wrong. When I told her salad gets mushy and freezer burnt in the freezer, she said “Well, no one told me that.” as if to blame the world for not letting her know. 

Needing to know everyone’s age

Almost every – single – time we watch TV together, she constantly asks what everyone’s age is. It could be a football game and she wants to know how old all the players are. It could be a TV show or movie and she wants to know how old all the actors are. I used to ask Siri on my phone so I could tell her the answer but I got tired of doing it. One night, I tried something different. This time, when she asked me how old someone was, I asked her why everyone’s age was so important to her. She looked at me like a deer in headlights — almost like I snapped her out of a deep sleep. She replied, “I don’t know”. I said, “You’re probably not aware of this but every time we watch TV you ask how old everyone is, so I was just curious about why you’re so interested in everyone’s age.” She couldn’t answer. It was as if I had made her aware of something she was completely unaware of. 

Reading and re-reading doctor’s notes

Whenever she would get a printout from the doctor’s office after one of her appointments, she would read the notes exhaustively over and over. She would underline some things and circle other things. Then, she would put it on a pile near her chair and the next day I would find her doing it all over again. She would do this each day like a broken record until I would remove the notes from her pile, and she would forget all about them. When I would ask her what she was doing, she would just say “Uh, just going through these”. Then I would ask if she had any questions and she would say that she didn’t. 

Obsessed with the weather

Every single day, multiple times a day, she would ask about or comment on the weather. This isn’t just the typical thing an elderly person asks about because they have nothing else exciting going on in their life. This is an obsession. Over and over again throughout the day, she would ask things like “When is it supposed to rain?” or “Is it windy out there?”.  In the wintertime, she would get overly obsessed with the cold. She would ask “How cold is it?” so I would tell her and she would shiver and say how the thought of that makes her cold. Of course, I would remind her how it has no impact on her because she’s in her overheated hot house, but it didn’t matter.

Cooking food in a plastic bag

One evening, I walked into the kitchen and noticed a small white plastic bag in a pan on the stove sitting in some water. Thankfully, the stove was off but it was still a hazard to have a plastic bag in a pan on the stove. I wondered if she was trying to defrost something so I asked her about it and she said she cooked her food like that. I was shocked, and said, “You cooked your food in the plastic bag on the stove?!”. She replied, “Yeah, why?”. Then I went on to tell her that it was not only a fire hazard but also that all the plastic toxins were cooked into the food she just ate. 

Heating meatballs and sauce on a flat pan

Another evening, I walked into the kitchen while she was making dinner and saw that she was heating up meatballs and sauce in a flat plan. There was sauce all over the stove around the pan because as she stirred the meatballs, the sauce fell off the pan and onto the stove. When I asked her why she didn’t use a regular pot or microwave to heat the meatballs, she just said “I don’t know, this is just what I grabbed first.”. 

Dinner on a paper towel

Another evening, I came into her family room and looked to see what she was eating for dinner and there was chicken, asparagus, and potatoes lying on a paper towel in her dinner tray. No plate, just a paper towel. When I asked her where her plate was she looked at me like it never occurred to her to even use a plate. She was even cutting her chicken on the paper towel. 

The lights are making it cold inside

My Mom constantly complains about the house being too cold or too hot. So one night, before bed she told me, “I want to try something tonight. I want to turn all the outside lights off to see if that will stop the cold from coming into my room”. Now, one of her worst symptoms of Alzheimer’s is Aphasia, which makes it difficult to find the right words. So, I replied, “Why do you think outdoor lights will affect the temperature of your room? Is ‘lights’ the word you meant to use?”. She said “Yes, the lights. I want to see if turning them off will make my room warmer.” I then explained how the outdoor lights have nothing to do with the indoor temperature. However, leaving her bedroom door open at night will help a lot because her bedroom is upstairs and all the hot air in the house rises. Of course, she claimed she “always leaves her door open at night.” but she never does.