Featured Image Credit: YouTube/YoungerOnsetDementia
Topics: Health, YouTube, Social Media, Mental Health
Poppy Bilderbeck
Topics: Health, YouTube, Social Media, Mental Health
Australian dad Fraser has opened up about being diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's and when his children first noticed something was up.
Midway through 2024, Fraser was diagnosed with Young-onset Alzheimer's disease, however, the 41-year-old father began experiencing symptoms two years prior.
Young-onset Alzheimer's disease - also known as early-onset Alzheimer's - is an 'uncommon form of dementia' when Alzheimer's begins before the age of 65, the Mayo Clinic explains.
Alzheimer's - the most common cause of dementia - is a currently incurable brain disorder which impacts memory, thinking and reasoning, making judgements and decisions, and can lead to changes in personality and behavior.
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Fraser has been opening up about his experiences with the disease via YouTube - 'I (don't) have dementia - and in a video shared on March 30, he addressed various questions sent to him.
At the start of the video, he revealed that he'd asked his kids what the 'earliest symptoms' they noticed him experiencing were.
"So I asked my kids just sort of casually and they said, "Everyone has memory issues that they have, they forget stuff in everyday life - we just noticed that you were just doing them more often, more frequently just normal, everyday memory lapses that everyone has."
Fraser explained recording videos for YouTube has caused him a bit of 'stress', but it's 'not necessarily a bad thing'.
"When I got diagnosed I kind of wanted to put it all out of my head as much as possible and not think about it, like six months later, five months, I - my mental health just crashed." he continued.
"I suddenly started getting panic attacks and feeling depressed. I kind of put that down to maybe it's because I was burying my head in the sand and trying not to think about this stuff, but really it's always in the back of your mind and so I just wasn't dealing with it.
"And so, yeah I started seeing a psychologist, got on some medication - antidepressants - I feel like this is very similar to that sort of talk therapy that you get in terms of, I like the idea of unpacking a specific topic, because that topic is in the back of your mind in a sense, but you sort of just try and forget about it."
The YouTube videos help Fraser bring the topic 'to the surface' and 'unpacking' it - ultimately taking the 'scariness out of it a bit'.
"It's just let's bring it up unpack it, think about it, okay that's how I feel about it, that's what I'm experiencing, that's what I'm thinking and it's all sort of there and it's manageable then in that sense," he adds.
Fraser resolves: "But that process of actually doing that does invoke stress - it's not easy to think about these things and to go through that process but I think it's a necessary process to go through in order to reach acceptance. That's what I'm thinking - could be totally wrong - but that's where I'm sort of landed on."
If you've been affected by dementia or Alzheimer's and would like to speak with someone in confidence, contact the Alzheimer's Association via 800.272.3900 open 24 hours seven days a week.