Dementia from the inside: how people with early-stage dementia evaluate their quality of life.
People with Alzheimer's disease are sometimes hurt by others' responses to their disease. Having early stage dementia can lead to social isolation with people feeling devalued and even being made to feel they do not exist. One of the participants in this study said: 'When they know you have Alzheimer's they will just kind of ignore you. You are just there and that's it. They leave you alone because they figure you don't know what you're talking about, you don't know what is going on.' The personal experiences of the negative view of dementia provided useful insights into the extent to which people with early stage dementia are affected by the stigma of the disease.