OPINION — Ask any family caregiver what breaks them when someone receives an Alzheimer's diagnosis and they won't describe a neurological event. They'll describe a moment of not being recognized. A conversation that went sideways. The exhaustion of being a stranger to someone who knows your face. The grief of loving someone who is still there, yet not there.
Alzheimer's and related diseases do not just happen inside the brain. They happen between people.
The core challenges of memory loss, confusion, behavioral changes, changing sense of self become problems in a relational context.
