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Mom, who I've been "in charge" of since the end of April, has had dementia for about 7 years now, and is living 5 minutes away in a lovely Memory Care Home. For the most part she's upbeat and goes along with life with a decent attitude despite the fact that she would prefer to live in my home. (we tried that, didn't work, I simply can't take care of her 24/7) She goes on several outings during the week, in fact today her caregiver took her to play cribbage with a lovely group of seniors who meet once a week. I was concerned that the Holidays would be hard, and Mom would want to know why she wasn't coming over to my house for dinner and presents, but she never did ask that. We brought presents over to her place, and the next day we took her out to lunch, but this evening she called up BEGGING for me to let her come live with us (mainly me.) I reminded her that she was not safe here in my home because she would wander off and get lost, and of course she denied that she would ever leave the house again, and then she said she would clean the house every day, etc. etc. ....all ridiculous claims of course. Then she started in with these god awful huge, hysterical sobs, just broken hearted sounding. (very theatrical) This is not the first time this has happened. I tried to recall that her therapist said I should listen to her vent, so I told her how sorry I was that she was unhappy, and if I could fix it I would fix it in a heartbeat. And of course she said it would be all better if she could live in my house, and I told her that would not make her happy, that she was in the house this summer and she was miserable and depressed and angry. MORE SOBBING and WAILS. When I wouldn't change my answer, even though I tried to sound sympathetic, then she said that I might as well drive over to her and shoot her. At this point I said, "really?" "really, Mom?" with absolutely NO sympathy, but with disbelief that she would try that route. She carried on with more sobbing and eventually realized I was prepared to wait it out... (she was never one for crying when I was growing up, she's more of the temper tantrum type) and then she said, "oh forget it." and hung up. So the question is.....are these types of behaviors more common during the holidays for your loved ones? I don't think this has anything to do with the Holidays for us, more that she seems to go through periods of sadness and discontent, and then she's fine for a while....

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I'd have your mom evaluated to see what is causing the mood swings. It could be depression, in addition to her dementia. Also, has she ever seen a neurologist? There is a neurological condition called Pseudobublar Affect. You can check it out online. It causes the patient to burst into tears and sobs for no actual reason. It's uncontrollable. It wouldn't hurt to rule it out.

If she can get a diagnosis, there might be treatment that can help her feel much better.
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Hi Sunnygirl, I did a little reading on Pseudobublar, I'm not sure Mom really fits the bill, but I will keep an open mind about it if that behavior continues.
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Has she been seen by a geriatric psychiatrist? Dementia causes all sorts of brain changes; often, meds like antidepressants work well to even out agitation and depression.
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