Introducation
How Alzheimer's affects the brain
How it affects you

Introduction

Welcome to the Alzheimer’s Association Capital of Texas Chapter Youth Outreach website. This site is designed specifically for adolescents who are affected in some way by Alzheimer’s disease. You may have a grandparent, aunt, uncle, or neighbor that has the disease. In some cases this person may even live at home with your family so they can be watched at all times. Or, it may be that a friend of yours has a family member with the disease. When a friend or family member has Alzheimer’s disease, you may feel upset, confused or scared. Alzheimer’s can be puzzling because a person who has it often doesn’t look sick.

But when you spend time with people with Alzheimer’s you know that something very serious is wrong. They may forget things, ask the same questions over and over, or have trouble even finding the right words for things. Some people with Alzheimer’s may cry, become angry very easily or behave in ways that embarrass you. Sometimes the person may not remember who you are even if it is someone like a grandparent who knows you very well.

People with Alzheimer’s disease are not acting like this to be mean or because they don’t care about you anymore. Changes deep inside their brains are destroying the centers that control remembering, thinking and feeling. They are losing their ability to make sense out of the world.

This page provides resources to help you learn about Alzheimer’s disease and understand how it affects you. It’s important to know that you are not alone. Alzheimer’s changes the lives of everyone it touches.

How Alzheimer's disease affects the brain

Your Brain: More Powerful than a Wizard, More Complex than a Computer

Do you like Harry Potter? This article explores how your extraordinary brain power helps you read, understand and remember. It also explains how Alzheimer’s disease damages the brain.

Brain Tour

What happens in the brain of a person with Alzheimer’s disease? This interactive tour explains how the brain works and how Alzheimer's affects it.

How Alzheimer’s disease affects you

- Just for Children: Helping You Understand Alzheimer’s Disease (2 pages)
This fact sheet will help you understand what is happening to a person with Alzheimer’s disease. It also explores how challenging it is to take care of someone who has Alzheimer’s. It includes puzzles and activities.

- Just for Teens: Helping You Understand Alzheimer's Disease (2 pages)
This fact sheet will help you understand what is happening to a person with Alzheimer’s disease. It also explores how challenging it is to take care of someone who has Alzheimer’s. It includes puzzles and activities.

- 101 ways to spend time with a person with Alzheimer’s Disease
A list of activities like making a scrapbook and looking at family photographs together that a person with Alzheimer’s disease might enjoy doing with you.

- What's Happening to Grandpa?
Online "fotonovella" that that tells the story of a Latino family going through the phases of awareness, treatment and care of a very close family member who has Alzheimer's.