Every year, we talk about memory loss, forgetting names, repeating questions, getting lost, behavioural changes and the progressive loss of independence. We talk about diagnosis, medicines, brain health and the importance of early recognition. But there is another symptom of dementia that rarely appears in a prescription.Loneliness. And sometimes, it is not the person with dementia who is most lonely. It is the person sitting beside them. A person with dementia may forget that you visited yesterday. The caregiver remembers every day. They may forget the conversation you had five minutes ago. The caregiver remembers every conversation—and every sleepless night.

They may forget the name of the person caring for them. The caregiver knows their name, their medicines, their food preferences, their fears, their appointments and increasingly, their entire world. This is the strange tragedy of dementia: one person’s memory fades, while another person’s memories become unbearably heavy.

A national Indian study estimated dementia prevalence among people aged 60 years and above in Jammu and Kashmir at 11.04%, higher than the national estimate of 7.43%. These are population estimates, not a diagnosis for every older person, but they are a powerful reminder that dementia deserves much greater attention in our communities.And dementia is not........

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