My mother (Alzheimer's patient) talks to the mirror as if it is her old friend. Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

Thats interesting, & it sounds comforting to her. My only info is that my mother 'talked to herself ' regularly: since I was a child. (I've never known anyone else who did that, nor do I know why). Mom held regular conversations (both sides) with herself whenever she thought she was alone. I wish I knew what caused it.

I had an elder who would see birds flying around her room. It was fortunate that they were friendly birds. I would ask her about the birds--which kind, the colour etc. I had another elder with a teddy bear that was thought to be alive. I would always address the teddy politely as if he could hear me. If she is comforted by the friend in the mirror, I would go along with it. It was very kind of you to get her more mirrors.

I understand dementia ...

my question is ... she has a friend ... someone to confide in that understands her ... shes not alone.

Thats bad how ???

This is an amazing and insightful conversation and I appreciate everyone’s sharing their experiences.

I remember being a Geriatric nurse long, long ago. We had staff regularly "orient" a patient to person, day, time, etc. : "What is the name of the President of the United States?"

As far as I was concerned, we should have given this unit, full of sad, lonely people, isolated by "caretakers" and locked unit doors, Christmas every day. Take your choice of holiday. Birthdays can be celebrated any day in the year, over and over. When the patient is that "disoriented" then why not let them live in a happy reality?

A dear, ancient little lady lay surrounded by a crowded room in what used to be called a hospital "ward". It was especially set aside for people that didn't have enough money to afford privacy - and so much more. The "women's lavatory" was a long room like you'd see at a trailer camp. No doors on the stalls. If you got up to go use it you'd have to step over wires from medical equipment and IV's. - A nightmare.

But back to this 100 year old angel. She had a sort of four-poster metal bed and saw kittens; millions of kittens all over the bed, lounging on the metal bars and plopping down onto her coverlet. My fellow co-workers, each in their turn, spent shift time straining to make her understand that she was seeing things and that there were no kittens. I finally got my time with her and I'll never forget the joy she experienced before her happy, peaceful death. "Look! See that fluffy white one!" the memory of her delighted laughter will always remain with me.

Forget trying to analyze or diagnose this behavior. Go to the Dollar Tree and buy gazillions of mirrors and plaster them everyplace. What price happiness? Substitute your mother's declining state of reality with the joy she's been blessed enough to supplant it with.

I have hundreds of videos of my mother talking to her long lost friend in the mirror!
Laughing & happy, so excited to see her, even trying to “get inside” the mirror to be with her.
In my experience, my mother was relieved to see a person she recognized and it brought her lots of security in an often lost & confusing world.
My only warning would be to say, if she is looking in a full length mirror then make sure it is secured well to the wall.
I once found my mother trying to pull a big heavy mirror down off the wall to get to her friend.
And once in the evening we were on a train and she recognized her own face out of many in the reflection of the window.
”oh hellooo, how are you! “She said with a beaming smile and then she turned to me and told me that she knew her. :)

To her she found a friend. I do not think it is odd. I believe it is dementia or Alzheimer's. Some people think it is someone else and get mad of why they are there. It is a good comfort to have the friend. In her world it is okay

When I was 12, my grandmother moved in with us. In the span of about 6 months, she went from being fully lucid to talking to her friend in the bathroom mirror. She was always disappointed when the friend wouldn't come out to play with her. The mirror was a source of social interaction and joy for her. I would encourage you to not be too disturbed by it, if it makes her happy. It disturbed me when I was a girl, but now I look back on it and am happy my grandmother was pleased to see her friend.

If she gets a CT scan they can usually tell (sometimes )the type. My mother has a diagnosis of vascular dementia ( brought on due to A. Fib ) . You can clearly see the areas with damage from the strokes but she also has a few small “ holes” so the dr said it’s probably actually mixed. I took her to the Brain Health Center at Cleveland Clinic for evaluation but I image most large hospital systems would have something similar

Hi there,
My mother is diagnosed with Dementia and is in a nursing facility. There is a full length mirror in her room and she frequently talks to her reflection. At times she does this when other people are in the room. She attempts to introduce her visitors to the person that is her reflection. She did start talking to the mirror months before she went into the nursing home.

Yes...this is a part of the early stages of Alzheimer's. At least for my Dad. He would go into the bathroom and see himself in the mirror and tell my Mom that that guy was back and to give him his rifle because he was going to shoot him. Which means....my Dad did not recognize himself in the mirror; he had no gun in the house; so was returning to World War II when he was in the Army. So my Mom took to covering all the mirrors in the house with newspaper. All I can say to you is that....this too will pass. And it may not take too long. Hang in there.

This is normal for an Alzheimer's patient.

mmendall, you asked how long Mom had Alz before she started talking to things she couldn't see.

Looking back I think Mom started Alz 15 years ago. I see things she would of never of done before that, the disease is gradual. All I can say is she started talking to things about 4 years ago with me. Her story is a long one. With Mom it took something to happen to get her to finally live with someone...the police were called. I used to joke with Mom that none of her 3 kids were ever in the backseat of a police car but she had that experience, haha! I tried to make it sound glamorous.

You see, the person in the mirror is, truly, another person as Alz people don't realize that is them. . .they aren't that old. What I did was print out an old photo of her, put it in a frame with no glass and she used to talk to that and sometimes she thought it was a mirror and she was looking at herself.  I also have 38-8x10 photos of her, at various stages of her life, on the wall that she looks at often. She still know those are her.


Mom is now in the final stage of Alz, 82 pounds and not eating much. She has hospice, she has been on hospice for a year and a half now, everyone, even the nurses are amazed she is still with us.

Mom traveled a lot, so, all evening I ask her is she is enjoying her flight and the movie. Most times she smiles and says yes but if she is getting tired she will say no. And, I say "Thank you for flying United." I tell her to keep her seat in the upright position, etc. I found a person needs to be creative and put things that maybe she can relate to in her face. She can't remember her kids but she remembers flying.

May I suggest you get books about Alzheimer's, there are some good videos on youtube with Alzheimer's info. There is one lady Teepa Snow (I think that's her name) who can show you a lot about how to handle the different stages. Just keep in mind that she has never actually taken care of Alzheimer's people she has just studied them. 

That's probably more than you wanted to read. Thank you for flying United and enjoy the movie.

My mother has Lewy Bodies Dementia. She talks to a stuff dog non stop. She also has auditory hallucinations to the point it gives her added anxiety. She has started praying out loud. All just part of it.

Yes! I care for a 98 year old woman having dementia. she will see reflections in a mirror which is partially hidden. she will get up close to the mirror and say "hello" and further attempt to communicate with whatever she is believing she sees!

I think it’s beautiful that she has a friend in the mirror that she can enjoy and spend time with. She’s confused, but not alone. Sounds like a sweet blessing to me.

My Sister-in-Law's mother had mental illness. No diagnoses on what kind. She had it when I met my SIL when she was 18 and dating my brother. "W" was a mean horrible crazy person. When she was older she had a mirror friend. She introduced my SIL to her as the next door neighbor who was really nice. It was the mirror on the bedroom closet. Funny that her mirror friend was so nice because "W" was such a crazy mean person. Of course back in the late 1940's and 1950's mental illness was treated much different than it is today. "W" died about 20 years ago. Everyone in the family, just acknowledged the friend and let it go.

Yes, this is extremely common and many patients go through this in dementia. It's relatively harmless behavior, so if she enjoys it, let her continue.

Your story makes me cry. My mom hallucinates. When still at home, she would look at her dog and see my cat, call me and ask what to feed my cat, who was sitting next to me at my house. When my son asked what was wrong, she told him she didn't know what to feed the cat! "Well, he said, this cat has already been fed, so don't worry about it". It seems that anything reflective, like windows, also send her into other worlds. She sees dogs trapped in cars, robbers in the neighbor's house or outside her window, people sitting all day in cars, so they must need help. These are not pleasant and she wants us to do something about what she sees. I would prefer if she had a friend in the mirror. One lady in my mom's assisted living has a huge stuffed girraf ( as tall as herself) that she talks to. She speaks French to it, so we don't know what she is saying exactly. I can pick up a few words and they are very pleasant and story-like. She kisses it and looks at it adoringly, usually keeps it in her room, but sometimes drags it along with her, walker and all.

My sister was diagnosed with Alzheimers at age 55. She used to run her own nursery school and at quite an early stage she would look in the dining room mirror and talk to the children and laugh. She would also see people on the ceiling and it was then that I realised I had to go into her world and would tell them to leave in front of her. That was a fairly easy stage. What came afterwards was just awful. They will never come back to your world but if you try to go into theirs it will make them feel more secure. Good Luck.

God bless You....Expect Anything Now......xx

Chances are she doesn’t recognize herself anymore. It is easier for Alzheimer / dementia sufferers to communicate with someone or something that doesn’t require a lot of thought. Mom was that way. She was drawn to little children that couldn’t really talk yet because it didn’t have to rely on her memory or thought process. They live in a confusing world of a broken mind so path of least resistance is comfortable to them. 🥰. Whatever brings them joy is always a good thing. 💕

I talk to the mirror sometimes and I do not have Alzheimers. Lol!
Sounds to me like she is taking to her inner self; her higher self. I think this is profound.

Mom had hallucinations for sure. Not of the mirror kind, but definitely auditory and visual. I felt it was mostly the disease and perhaps part of the medication she was taking.
I agree with talking to the neurologist about your observations just to have a better understanding. Otherwise I use to just follow my mother's conversational lead and play the game or live in the moment. It would do no good to try to jolt her back to reality. Her reality is different now. Keep her as safe, comfortable and happy as you can.

Yes. Mom does the exact same thing.

Eeveryone is different and everyone with Alzheimer's is different. I would simply accept things as they are.

My mom would talk to the mirror, too. I'd sometimes think, "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, I don't understand this at all." I once heard her say, "Get out of here." I thought maybe the dog had wandered in there, but no, my mom was talking to the mirror. She also had auditory hallucinations, so those were my mom's "friends," but I'm not sure if the mirror's reflection was friend or foe. I think she might not have known either. I guess I need to "reflect" on that. (A little humor helps too, when it comes to Alzheimer's). That's why I wrote  a book about our experiences: "My Mother Has Alzheimer's and My Dog Has Tapeworms: A Caregiver's Tale." I'm glad to know my mom wasn't the only one who saw a mirror image, so to speak. At the time, (about 6 years ago), I had never heard about this behavior. I agree with other comments about making sure that she doesn't try to throw anything at the mirror. My mom never did, although she could become agitated at times, (usually over nothing, just a general sense of agitation, which caused aggravation for all concerned). I'd certainly talk to her doctor, and maybe a neuro-psychiatrist. Best of luck.

My Mom would talk to the mirror until she got mad at the lady in the mirror and struck it (her). It was a full size mirror on the back of a door, I had to take it down. So, watch to make sure she doesn't get aggressive, she could cut herself if she hits it hard enough, not to mention 7 years bad luck. : )

The weird thing was she would stop talking to the lady in the mirror if I came near. My Granddaughter would say she was playing Mirror, Mirror on the Wall and it was ok!

My Mom graduated to talking to someone sitting in the rocking chair. I didn't have a problem with it, all the the Alz books say these things can happen.

My husband’s grandmother talked to her friend in the mirror - my MIL thought it was too confusing and covered the mirror with a sheet. Not good as you can imagine... I said let her talk to her friend and we removed the sheet. It was the best thing we did. There is no harm and at times it let us in to ‘her world’ at that time. I say if there is no harm - go with the flow.

Let her talk to the mirror. If it makes her happy, you should be thankful.

When my mother passed, my father was devastated - I told him Mom was still there in the house & the furniture - talk to her. It made his last 7-1/2 years a little more bearable.

With any Dementia, the brain is "broken" - maybe she talked to herself in the mirror as a child - if it makes her happy, don't take it away from her. Just learn to smile.