Alzheimer’s disease affects 225,000 new patients each year. And they are not the only ones to suffer the consequences of this pathology: “Including caregivers, 3 million people are directly affected by Alzheimer’s disease”underlines the Alzheimer Research Foundation.
The actress Sophie Belvisi was confronted with this reality. His mother was affected by a disease related to Alzheimer’s: Benson syndrome. At the time of diagnosis, Sophie was only 18 years old, and her mother was less than 50 years old. “When I started telling people that mom had Alzheimer’s, people didn’t believe us.” because of her age, the young woman remembers.
“We’re telling you: you have to take care of your mother’s bank accounts”
For Sophie’s mother, who was a nurse, it all started with memory and vision problems: “She was starting to no longer remember certain things (…) she no longer saw very well, she simply no longer knew how to find her way in space.”
A whole protocol was gradually put in place: “There are social workers who come to the house, nurses who come and then they tell you: ‘You have to take care of your mother’s bank accounts’”. At the age of 18, Sophie then took matters into her own hands, not without difficulty: “You don’t know how it works at all because you’re just starting out in life.”she recalls.
“We cut off our brains at that moment and we move forward”
Request for aid, registration at the nursing home, financial management… “All of a sudden I was besieged by responsibilities”, says Sophie. Although she initially wanted her aunt to take care of her mother, this project did not come to fruition and she did not hesitate to take over. “I said to myself: she took care of me for 18 years, what am I going to do?”. A decision all the more obvious for her as she was “very close” to her mother. To support him through his illness, Sophie went for it. “We shut off our brains at that point and we move forward. We are really in the pragmatic”she explains.
When her mother died three years ago, Sophie felt a great void around her. “We say to ourselves: ‘But who am I?’ I took care of someone for 10 years and now I have to take care of myself for the rest of my life”. The young woman then gradually learned to know herself, and continues this work today.
“We must not remain isolated”
Since then, Sophie has written a show, which she called Alzhei’mère and who tells “all the adventures” that she lived with her mother. “I love being able to say that everything that happens to us is not inevitable and we can laugh, we can make the best of it, even sublimate it”she assures.
The message she would like to convey? That we must not stop talking about it. “We must not remain isolated when we experience things like this. Because we can hurt ourselves”, she elaborates. She thus reminds caregivers of the need to be well surrounded and not hesitate to rely on competent health professionals, but also not to forget themselves and to take care of themselves, in particular by being followed by a therapist. . When you find the right person, “It’s such a relief”she concludes.
Sophie Belvisi will perform her show “Alzhei’mère” on September 22 and 23 at Le Citron Bleu, in Toulouse.
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