Page 36 - Changes and Challenges

Dementia
Changes and Challenges
Clearly, the continuous low level of pain, cause more pain over the day than
the intense pain.

Figure 9: Pain Intensity and Time

Now typically I experience an almost continuous level of low-level pain. Its
small fluctuations are generally enough to break my sleep.

Motivation.
Apathy or loss of motivation is a symptom commonly reported with many
forms of Dementia. It is due in part to degeneration of parts of the brain
associated with motivation and reward. Another big cause of loss of
motivation relates to the realization of our increasing limitations.

I now find it very hard to get motivated to some things I once was good at. For
example, I have been planning to lay about 1m of additional track on my
model railway for about 2 years. I have done a lot of the preparation, but I
find it very easy to get diverted to some other project. One reason that robs
my motivation is the knowledge that some of the tasks I once performed
without difficulty such as cutting the track and fitting and aligning the new
section, adding electrical connections and control circuitry now pose major
challenges for me. My fine motor skills have deteriorated, this impacts on
tasks such as soldering the track and electrical connections. I also know it is
increasingly difficult to sequence and co-ordinate all the small component

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