The hole in the floor.

I met a woman recently whose husband had suddenly refused to go into the bathroom. She couldn’t get him through the door no matter what she tried. She couldn’t understand it. It made no sense.

It turned out that there was a mat inside the door and he thought that it was a hole in the floor. Obviously, he was not going to step into it because that would mean he would fall. Very sensible of him too!

As Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias progress it is very common for visual problems to occur. It can show up in many ways. It might be depth perception or not being able to distinguish between things of the same color – like a white toilet in a white bathroom. It could also be seeing things that are not there or not understanding what they are seeing.

The answer in this situation was to remove the mat from the floor. It was that simple. The same mat could be used to her benefit though because it could be placed in front of a door she didn’t want him to go through. This would be particularly useful if he was likely to wander out of the house. Once you know what the issue is it can be simple enough in some cases to deal with it.

The difficult part is learning what your loved one is thinking and understanding their logic.