With Mayo Clinic health education outreach coordinator Angela Lunde

The responses from my last posting makes it clear that young onset AD is painful beyond belief and there are as many experiences in living with the disease as there are persons diagnosed.

My purpose was not to minimize the depth of the despair you are going through. I have heard from some patients with young onset AD that despite the devastating shock, numbness, and overwhelming sadness of the diagnosis, there was some relief in knowing they were not 'lazy' or 'crazy' and that their symptoms are due to a real neurological problem.

I heard a gentleman diagnosed with young onset AD speak at a conference last year. His words were powerful. He said, "Please do not mourn the fact I am not who I was, or you want me to be, or we both miss this moment when we focus on yesterday or last year or twenty years ago. We miss living together today, we miss the chance to love, and to laugh, and to be all we can be today, when we are mourning who I was."

I invite you to see some men and women with young onset AD speak openly about their experiences on a Web-cast from our "Meeting of the Minds" conference that took place in 2007. You can find the link below.

More than anything, I am humbled by your words and I am grateful for your candid sharing.

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