An Illustration of Dementia

In one of my graduate program courses, I had a visual editorial illustration assignment. Bombarded with dementia issues on a daily basis, I hardly have time to think about other social and human issues. I created the following illustration of how I would describe the disease.

An Illustration of Dementia by Liz Spencer

Dementia is a collection of symptoms including memory loss, personality change, and impaired intellectual functions. Common signs and symptoms of dementia include:

• Memory loss
• Impaired judgment
• Difficulties with abstract thinking
• Faulty reasoning
• Inappropriate behavior
• Loss of communication skills
• Disorientation to time and place
• Gait, motor, and balance problems
• Neglect of personal care and safety
• Hallucinations, paranoia, agitation.

To create the image I combined recent photographs of my mother, childhood photos of her, images of a newspaper article when she was working in the 1980s, and graphics that helped tell the story of how I visually describe the disease. I also incorporated glimpses of images that held a similar emotional connection: an photograph of the May 22, 2011 Joplin, Mo. tornado destruction and a photo of human skulls in the Catacombs in Paris, France.

I found myself this week screaming, "This disease is disgusting. I hate it. I hate this horrible disease!"

The process of creating the image took several days. The closer I got to completion, the more unsettled and anxious I became--realizing the hatred I have for the disease was coming to life.

Reading the description of common signs and symptoms, I am literally nauseous. My mother exhibits every one of those signs, except for hallucinations--at least not to our knowledge.

Telling a visual story of Alzheimer's disease has been an emotional, personal process. Looking at the image that was created, an emotional reaction stirs inside of me.

Agitation, Disorientation, Memory Loss, Paranoia, Impaired Judgement, Imbalance, Inappropriate Behavior, Neglect, Destruction, Death...

Disgusting, horrible disease.