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Jerryo Asked February 2018

My wife wakes up and asks me to take her home. She believes we are living in a house identical to ours. Any suggestions?

I have tried everything including agreeing to her demand to take her “home.” We drive around and return but she thinks I am playing tricks. She says she is afraid of me and doesn’t trust me. This has happened several times without any pattern to causes that I can think of. Are there better ways to respond to her?

jeannegibbs Feb 2018
This is common enough to have a name. Look up Capgras syndrome for information and suggestions.

Have you ever tried agreeing that you are in an identical house, and that you will take her home later? "I know it is unsettling not to be in our own home, but we can't go back until the water problem is solved in the street. I think we are pretty lucky to have this nice place until then." I don't know if that will work, but I know for sure what doesn't work: trying to convince them they are home.

Once when I took my husband to a nice room where he could rest "until the buses were running to take him home", he exclaimed, "Oh, this is just like my bedroom at home!" I said I thought he'd like it and that I'd help him get ready to sleep.

Capgras syndrome can occur in other situations, but it is especially associated with Lewy Body Dementia. Has anybody suggested that as the kind of dementia your wife has? Be sure to inform her doctors of her Capgras behavior.

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