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Caring For An Aggressive Alzheimer’s Patient is difficult. It can be stressful on the patient, family, and the ones giving care. Here are tips and information on Alzheimer’s disease giving you, family members, insight into helping your elder loved one living with the disease.

As your loved ones Alzheimer’s progresses, you may notice that they become more aggressive and tend to shout and become physical with you and your family members.  Seen more often in men with Alzheimer’s than women, this behavior often occurs suddenly, with little warning and no apparent reason.  Because it is probably difficult to understand where your loved one is coming from, it’s easy to become frustrated, but patience and understanding is necessary to calm him or her down and find out why they are so upset.

Aggression can be caused by several factors including physical discomfort, poor communication or an uncomfortable environment.  When your loved one becomes aggressive, try to get to the source of their anger to see if you can make them more comfortable and less upset.  Are they tired because they haven’t been sleeping well?  Are the medications they’re taking causing side effects that make them angry or ill?  Does it seem like they’re experiencing physical discomfort and pain? 

Take note of environmental factors that could be making your loved one uncomfortable.  Are there a lot of loud noises or people in the room?  Do they look lost or confused?  These feelings are enough to make anyone annoyed, but for a person with Alzheimer’s it can be particularly overwhelming and cause an angry outburst.  They may also be frustrated because of their lack of ability to communicate with you. 

Keep your instructions simple and don’t ask too many questions or state too many things at once.  Are you acting negatively to towards them or are you irritable yourself?  Your loved one may be picking up on your own aggression.