ANOTHER LOOK AT DEMENTIA
AND AT THE PRESERVATION OF YOUTH

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C) The enemies of mental youth

The establishment of dementia takes place slowly, already in the youth, unconsciously, with acceleration moments during painful or traumatic events. However, advancing in age, some lucidity on the loss of grip on reality, still persists a very long time, and in most cases, until the end, despite appearances.

And what brings the mental to function at 95% automatically at the age of 35?

1) Automatisms and absence of changes

Our conditionings, our habits, our daydreams, our ruminations, our routines, the absence of changes in our lives, the lack of innovation in our behavior, in our choices, in our activities, the absence of intellectual stimulation, the lack of curiosity, of motivation to make new learning, our lassitude, our abdication in front of the effort; are leading us to repeat the same kind of thoughts.
In this sense, our perpetual search for comfort, and our avoidance behaviors in front of unexpectedness or novelty, are signs that can draw our attention to the risk of mental shriveling up. Comfort is useful to avoid suffering and pain, but it is harmful when it comes to our laziness. In that way, a part of the novelties brought by robotization and artificial intelligence could very well accelerate our loss of intellectual abilities.
Being aware of those aspects make it possible to start the reverse learning towards improvisation, innovation and the taste for adventure.

2) An anarchic memorization

The accumulation of memorized things that are not organized, structured, arranged, sorted in our memory, will, over time, make access to those data more and more difficult. We store information, experiences, memories, opinions and reflections from childhood as if our brain memory had no limit. Imagine the hard disk of your computer, if you would save all your files, without any order, nor date, nor title, neither extension type, neither theme, and all this by tens of thousands, millions, in a single and unique library. This could lead to chaos at the time you would reach the limits of your ability to make research in all this mess, even if your memory 'space' would be unlimited.

It is well known that when aging, we keep more older memories, but we do not memorize as well in the short term. This suggests that the process of short-term memory is the one defective. This latter, generally, decreases in efficiency when we lack concentration, and this can happen in case of stress.
But it may well be that it can be partly also the saturation of the long-term memory which generates the difficulty or the impossibility of memorizing in the short term. It would not then be only the recording of information that fails, just it would be prevented because of the congestion in the long-term memory.

3) Stress

Excess of stress is creating congestion of thoughts, and forces to create serial automatisms without always keeping control over the proper functioning of these processes. Stress takes us away from the present moment, from consciousness, from serenity, to make the right choices. It forces us to function like a robot. Its permanence teaches us to act like automaton.

4) Negative emotions

The presence of strong negative emotions, be they fears, anger, depression; generates confusion between the memorized elements, making the dissociation between them more difficult. In particular traumatic events will reduce the mnemonic capacities in a sustainable way, even evolving, most of all when those emotions are repeated in time.

5) Submission and dependence

Submission and dependence can also play a role. When - forced or not - we delegate our actions and/or decisions to others, our mental is clearly less solicited.

6) Addictions

Addictions generate highly automated behaviors. Since there is dependence on a substance, an activity or a person, it is clearly more difficult to change those behaviors.

7) Isolation and lack of activity

Isolation and lack of activity, vectors of monotony and boredom, can also represent an important factor in the process of losing memory, for, lack of both social and intellectual stimulation, facilitates treading water in our head, by the lack of innovation, of meeting opportunities, of support, of diversification of experiences.

8) Absence of human projects

The lack on short- and medium-term goals, in terms of feeling oneself useful for others or for society, restrains the meaning of life, and the courage to live, holding back therefore the mental functioning.

9) Lack of will, of self-discipline

The lack of will, the lack of self-discipline play a role too on two levels. During youth, if they are not developed, they prevent us to realize our choices and our desires on the long term. And, when our mental abilities begin to diminish, the speed of the process will be hold back or not by the presence or not of a strong will and self-discipline. Once the disease is established, there is no real access anymore to the will.

10) The omnipresent critic

Although critical mind can be a quality in itself, when it is highly developed, it becomes disabling, and it can work like a dependence. It can lead to lots of negatives consequences that will generate situations conductive to the establishment of the dementia. Indeed, a predominant critical mind leads to failures, remoteness from the entourage, mistrust in front of novelty, of new encounter, of new activity. We trust only what we know that works well. We shrivel up, and if not we keep fighting with everything and everyone, everything being a pretext for critic.

11) Some mental illnesses or issues

Many mental illnesses also have aspects related to the process of narrowing mental activity, in the meaning that one aspect of life is spinning its wheels. This is the case with depression regarding moral or life energy, with obsessive-compulsive disorder regarding life habits, with bulimia and anorexia, regarding eating habits, with burn out, regarding stress and life energy, with chronic fatigue syndrome regarding life energy, etc.

 

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ANOTHER LOOK AT DEMENTIA
AND AT THE PRESERVATION
OF YOUTH

Download ebook version
Download pdf version

Preliminary remark

A) Our automaton-brain
B) Aging
C) The enemies of mental youth

1) Automatisms and absence of changes
2) An anarchic memorization
3) Stress
4) Negative emotions
5) Submission and dependence
6) Addictions
7) Isolation and lack of activity
8) Absence of human projects
9) Lack of will, of self-discipline
10) The omnipresent critic
11) Some mental illnesses or issues
12) The mask

D) Acting to prevent

1) Acting on thoughts
2) Acting on memory
3) Need to act before the onset of symptoms

E) Educate the thinking

1) The state of physical health
2) Make the memory work
3) Habits
4) broadening interests
5) The organization of our thoughts
6) Meditation
7) Cultivating the doubt
8) Healing emotional wounds
9) Managing without needing to have control over everything
10) Opening of the heart

F) Preconclusion
G) Better understanding our elders

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