HOW DO WE KNOW WHO WE ARE?

I recently watched Julianne Moore's moving and beautiful performance in "Still Alice."  She portrayed the rapid progression of dementia symptoms in a 50 year old woman.  In the movie, she talked about how devastating it was to lose her memory and to lose her memories.  She felt that in many ways, her memories defined who she was.  What does define who we are?  Is it our memories? Is it our experiences?  Is it our relationships?  Is it who we love? 

Our experiences seem to be important to how we view ourselves. These experiences also seem to be shaped by our relationships with others and with ourselves.  So, to take away these experiences could leave us feeling empty.  But, does having dementia mean we lose these experiences?  Or, are we still who we are even without our memories. We don't seem to think about our memories when we go about our daily routines, having new experiences with people we are with. In fact, if we are thinking about the past (memories?) then we can miss the opportunity to have a new experience that will add to our sense of ourselves.  

So, is it possible to still know ourselves even if we are losing our immediate and short term memory?  Do we store our experiences in a way that we can hold on to them even when our memory goes?  If so, then the problem with memory loss may be our reactions to the loss and the reactions of others who we are with. So, does the stress that our reactions create really undo us when we lose memory?  Even if this is true, how in the world would we be able to not react with stress?  

Research studies continue to correlate stress with an increased risk for memory problems (dementia).  So we should avoid stress!  Of course.  That is why I focus so much in these blogs on how to control (eliminate?) stress.