"Mild dementia: Short-term memory is impaired, as is language function, especially word finding. Aphasia (impaired ability to comprehend or use language), agnosia (impaired ability to identify objects despite intact sensory function), and apraxia (impaired ability to perform previously learned motor activities despite intact motor function) can develop. Executive function (eg, ability to plan, organize, and sequence) is impaired. Apathy is common. As a result, patients function less well. Patients may forget the name of a recent dinner guest or get lost on the way to the store. They may have progressive difficulty with formerly mastered complex activities (eg, driving) and moderately complex daily activities (instrumental activities of daily living; eg, handling finances, preparing meals, housekeeping). Patients are less likely to take the initiative. They have difficulty following directions.
Emotional lability is common. Patients may be irritable, hostile, and agitated.
Although mild dementia may not compromise sociability,
family members may report that patients are not acting like themselves or are doing uncharacteristic things (eg, a miserly widower gives thousands of dollars to a questionable charity).
Poor judgment is common.
Patients with mild dementia can usually compensate reasonably well and follow established routines at home. Difficulty often results from disruption of routine or a change in surroundings. For example, an elderly parent who visits a child's unfamiliar home may become disoriented or manifest behavioral symptoms and functional disability, which do not occur in more familiar surroundings."
http://www.merck.com/mkgr/mmg/sec5/ch40/ch40a.jsp
I have seen people hang themselves and still have their feet touching the floor with their knees bent. Where there is a will, there is a way. I saw the show that errn247 was talking about in the beginning of the thread. They stained brain tissue from a healthy person and a person who had the bell rung a few times and in the person with multiple head injuries they found tissue damage on a cellular level comparable with dementia/alzheimer patients .
Depression, despair, cognitive impairment, all coupled with pain medication and benzo's spells an unfortunate incident. And, as bigcracker stated earlier, this is not sensational reporting. The media will downplay the disitinct possibilty that too many hits to the head sent Benoit over the edge. After all, dirty laundry sells better than the truth.
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