Wondering About ALS

[caregiverforals]

Hello there to all, I am a caregiver for a gentleman with ALS of 18 years, I was wondering about the emotional part of it. I am his main caregiver, that is with him most of the time, I can handle him, but do have my concerns, He is a type of a man that does not like loosing control over everything that happens with him, he fights and gets mad very easily. Now he is going through this I do not want to talk to the caregivers or let us help him much and gets mad when he thinks we are doing something wrong. I do not fight with him ,because to me it is like fighting with a two year old, and you do not do that either. I will say there are times that I would like to ask him why he acts this way,because the things is he knows what he is doing a lot of the times, but yet they say ALS will effect the emotions of people, So it is the ALS or him or both, is there anything that can be done for him to calm him.

Well hope someone can help me here with all of this I have my hands ful of a lot and not sure how to take it

Thanks

 

[cris]

Not gonna be a lot of help, bt here goes. It 'could' be emotional liability. They seem to have emotional outburst that don;t match the subject at hand or is way more than the issue is warrented. It could be that he knows that he is 'loosing control of his body and has no idea how to handle the helplessness of it all. And a lot more upset than he wants you to know so he lashes out at people to keep then from getting too cloce and seeing he is hurting inside....

Will pray for you both!

cris

 

[Katie C]

It could be EL, it could be signs of FTD.. hard to tell from your post. It does sound like at the very least some anti-depressents could help him out.. I know our neurologist believed in his PALS being evaluated by a psychiatrist that has an interest in patients with neurological issues. Could be worth a try.