[LilFarmer]

My mom used to say she’d rather have any disease than dementia.

She got ALS instead, and it took her in 5 months. She told me that it worse than anything she could have imagined. She was so claustrophobic and she asked my sister and I to move some part of her body every few minutes. It was just horrific for her.

My FiL recently died of dementia, after dx 10 years ago.

Of the two, I would say in the later stages, ALS Is harder on the sufferer, while dementia is harder on the loved ones. Both were very hard, though.

[silent_jonny]

ALS Is harder on the sufferer, while dementia is harder on the loved ones.

Agreed. I wouldn't wish either on anyone, but my mom had dementia. Near the end it was a 24/7 nightmare.

[Bernard]

My sister-in-law's father fell down walking to the car one evening. He was gone before he landed on the sidewalk. That seems like the ideal way, or at least the least painful way to go. For the person and the family.

Of course, there is no time for goodbyes, so it's not perfect.

[Spacetrucker]

My wife and I are going through the dementia problem with her mother. She was a VERY self-reliant person before dementia and it breaks my wife’s heart that she has been reduced to this.