As soon as you are diagnosed with dementia, it is important to start to use techniques of “living smart with dementia.”

• Time Frame: reorient yourself to the ways things are now, not what they used to be.
• Medications: work with your doctor on drugs that can help with your symptoms and follow your doctors’ instructions.
• Anxiety: ask your doctor for help.
• Gratitude: Appreciate and acknowledge all those who help you.
• Communicate: Use appropriate methods for your current cognitive strengths not necessarily the way you have done it in the past.
• Apathy: Take steps to actively reorient yourself when you just don’t feel like doing anything.
• Think Small: Your goal is to live well and make as few problems for others as possible. You are not going to rebuild your career or Rome. Identify what you can do and work hard to do.

The mind map below shows a synthesis of these ideas. Click on the image to expand it.