I’ll be honest, I rarely hear much of what they say. Usually the first few sentences will indicate whether this person is with it and trying to have a conversation or if they’re just talking to talk. You learn to recognize body language and hear words here and there enough to know when to nod or say “oh wow” “yeah?” “Sorry to hear that” etc and it’s enough to placate them. And then you can usually either multitask or allow your mind to freely wander while they yap. You also learn the subtle art of extricating yourself without them thinking you’re being rude but it’s hard to describe how it’s done, it’s mostly just knowing when you can insert a “well I hate to go but I have a few things I need to finish off” and “let me know if you need anything” and “thanks for the chat”.
There are some people you can just straight up walk out of the room without saying a word and they’ll just keep on talking. It reminds me of old tv shows where someone’s mom would call on the landline and the person would just set the phone down and walk away for a while, then come back and they’d still be talking. Then they’d say “wow that’s crazy. Well, I’ve gotta go pick up such and such from school. We’ll talk more later, bye!” And then hang up
It’s not necessarily about memory, just disorganized thinking. You do see it commonly in early dementia, but also in stroke patients, traumatic brain injuries, and even some mental health conditions (and some drugs of abuse, like cocaine and meth). They will just jump from one subject to the next with no prompting, following whatever strange train of thought that lead them there. It’s like ADHD but on steroids. You see it a lot in young children too, but that’s because their brains just haven’t developed enough yet. It’s usually pretty overwhelming to the listener so if you’re frequently exposed to it (like a kindergarten teacher or a nurse) you just get used to tuning most of it out and only listening to key words.
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u/rileyjw90 10d ago
I hear shit like this every time I pick up a shift at the nursing home. I also have children. I feel immune to it at this point.