Knowing More About Dementia - Is It A Double-Edged Sword?

More and more in the media, we are hearing about dementia. The different types, the symptoms, the risk factors, etc. And this is amazing for so many reasons: awareness, advocacy, research, support for caregivers, and so many more. We are learning, and education is so valuable. People can see that they are not alone in a struggle with a loved one with dementia. They can see what red flags there are which might signal that it’s time to make a doctor’s appointment. And they can see that there is more than one type of dementia, and the symptoms can vary from type to type, person to person, and stage to stage.

However, there is another side to this: there is this really interesting phenomenon called the availability heuristic. This heuristic is a rule of thumb that we can use to make quick decisions and judgments about a variety of topics, by simply using information that is easily available in our mind. When something is vivid or recently discussed, it becomes readily available. Sometimes, this may mean that we overestimate how often something occurs because we can easily think of examples of it occurring. As a result, we may be seeing so many things through the “lens of dementia.” And then may think that dementia happens more often than it does, and ultimately start to think that any sign of cognitive failure (even the common or typical ones, like forgetting to pick up milk on your way home from work) are a sign that we’ve got dementia, even when we don’t.

The reality is that dementia rates are lower than we realize. Only 5-11% of older adults over the age of 65 have Alzheimer’s—that’s the most common type of dementia (I say “only,” but that is still a lot of people!), and this rises to 33% of those over the age of 85. In neither of these instances is it a universal experience. But, because we see it so often, remember it so vividly, and carry a fear of it with us, we may believe that it is… simply by having that information so available in our mind.

So, while we are learning more and seeing more about dementia in the media, and this is a good thing, we also need to keep it in perspective. The occurrence of dementia in our later years does not happen to everyone, it is not an inevitability of getting older, and we don’t need to live in fear that this will be our future.

Sara J. Margolin, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology, Philosophy, and Neuroscience at SUNY Brockport. She has published a textbook on the psychology of aging, and her writing has also appeared in the Buffalo News, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, and the Albany Times Union. You can find her on Instagram (@drsaramargolin) and Facebook (Sara Margolin) providing insight into the positive aspects of aging every day.