Down the Rabbit Hole

Doctor uses stories to explore Alzheimer’s disease

By Maya Douglas
Observer Contributor

Dr. Dana Walrath is the author of the graphic novel Aliceheimer’s: Alzheimer’s Through the Looking Glass – a collection of stories about her mother’s battle with dementia.

Aliceheimer’s: Alzheimer’s Through the Looking Glass is laid out as a collection of short stories. Each page has a new story and a new drawing so that if a person with Alzheimer’s or dementia loses their place or forgets what they have read, it doesn’t matter. They can still enjoy it without confusion. “Telling stories restores humanity,” said Walrath.

Walrath described the book as funny, sad, imaginative, and truthful. The entire novel is illustrated by her as well, with actual text from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland integrated into her drawings.

During her “Comics, Medicine, and Memory” lecture, sponsored by The Humanities Project, Walrath referred to her time taking care of her mother as a “dementia journey” filled with laughs and forgiveness.

The two saw sides of each other they had never seen before. Walrath said she learned to understand hallucination as a language and as a form of longing. She considered it the only way her mother knew how to communicate.

Alzheimer’s is a disease with no cure and it has resisted modern medicine. Alice fiercely believed in science and Walrath said her mother always wanted to attend medical school. But medicine is only preventative. Walrath said it was difficult to search for alternatives to cope with the loss of her mother’s memory.

Walrath views dementia not as a loss of self, but as a withdrawal to a more pure self. People with dementia regress to a simpler state; a focus on sense such as taste and touch. Never say no to dementia, just simply go along with it.

“Don’t fight it, and you are able to go on this adventure with them,” said Walrath. “People with dementia have a system going on in their heads that we do not have access to.” Instead, she encourages letting a couple of realities coexist.

In the graphic novel, Walrath portrays her mother, Alice, as a beautiful and dignified eighty-year old woman, but also, as a result of dementia, a child. During this time, Alice shared things with her daughter that she might not ever have before, and Walrath cherishes this and considers it a gift. She hopes for others who are struggling with caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s to do the same.

Walrath also expressed a need to create peace during a time of death. “In a world of medicine, we are not taught that the end of life is about peace and forgiveness,” she said. “We are taught to fight it.” She explained this is the reason why dementia is so difficult. When it comes to Alzheimer’s, there is nothing to fight.

Walrath described Alice’s passage as transcendent and beautiful. She wishes she could give that to everyone. Fifty percent of people with dementia die in the hospital, and Walrath said it is usually because the family is struggling with death and/or the medical system is failing them. She proposes that we end life with less invasion; that we become a society comfortable with death.

Walrath found comics late in life, and it was Alice that inspired her to begin tinkering with graphics. She said Alice loved comics during her dementia journey and read many during the time she stayed with her. She wants to use comics to rewrite all sorts of stories.

“Comics bring us back in time,” Walrath said. “Back to a time when we were comfortable with each other. A time when we understood each other by looking into their eyes, through facial expressions and actions.”

Walrath began as a visual artist, then decided to get her doctorate in anthropology. She also has an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She has spoken on TedTalks and written articles for newspapers such as The New York Times. She lives in Dublin, Ireland as an Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute.