Hacker News Reader

Comment by _m8fo | Hacker News Reader

There are three realities:

1. The actions you should take if you knew that a serious disorder was coming for you will probably be beneficial one way or another.

2. There is nothing you can do about Alzheimers.

3. The only reason you wouldn't live the best, healthiest life you could now is because of an incorrect notion that you'll probably be fine until some set time (e.g. retirement)

Knowing these things, and the fact that stress has a negative effect on your health should compel anyone who reads the article to just live a sustainable life.

Since everyone dies and everyone knows it, the priority should be on living a nice life, free from the illusion that you'll live any given duration. Ideally, being diagnosed with something like Alzheimers would result in a shrug, just like how you would shrug if someone told you you're gonna die one day.

View on HN

Alzheimers would result in a shrug, just like how you would shrug if someone told you you're gonna die one day.

Alzheimer's isn't like being dead though. It's an incredibly painful reminder to everyone you've every loved that you are no longer "you", but they have to take care of you every day anyways. Painfully re-opening wounds every time you don't remember who they are, or hurt yourself from confusion. It's a continuous living purgatory for your loved ones, with you gone but not gone.

I'd rather live the best, unhealthiest life, and hope I'm dead dead from other causes before I can cause so much pain to the ones I love.

Indeed. Personally I am confused by those wishing to die in their sleep. I'd prefer to be totally awake, cognitively aware that I'm dying. People think I'm joking when I say I'd like a violent death, if the alternative is Alzheimer's.

The trouble is a) knowing that I have it and b) having the drive to annihilate myself before I no longer can do it myself. Fortunately I live in a state where suicide is legal and available by pill, and that's a great option if I can't build up the drive to rig my death some other way.

> Fortunately I live in a state where suicide is legal and available by pill

for Alzheimer's?

http://assisted-dying.org/blog/2011/01/10/can-an-alzheimers-...

'There is nowhere in the U.S. someone with Alzheimer’s disease can legally commit suicide with the help of a physician or friend. (Suicide itself is not a crime.) People with Alzheimer’s are not considered competent, and the disease is generally not considered terminal because a person often does not die within six months of a diagnosis.'

How would you make the decision that right now is the time to kill yourself? If future you can't wait one more day, then why didn't he do it yesterday? I think there would be a general decline in life quality but with ups and downs so you'll never know if tomorrow will be better than today so there may be no clear point when you're sure you don't want anymore.

Once you've lost too much of your mind to really know what's going on, you're not someone who should be trusted to make that decision- just as we don't think mentally ill people should be trusted with that decision.

>Ideally, being diagnosed with something like Alzheimers would result in a shrug, just like how you would shrug if someone told you you're gonna die one day.

That isn't reality, though. I wouldn't want to have that big black cloud hanging over me.

If I'm not having symptoms, and there's no way to treat the disease they want to test for, I've no interest in taking the test. Life is stressful enough.

I knew a guy who was diagnosed with cancer, freaked out, and had a fatal heart attack a few days later. Maybe that was already in the cards, but I suspect he'd have lived for a few more years without that cancer diagnosis.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com