Wendy Williams diagnosis

[ty]

Wendy Williams has been diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia, Today reports. pic.twitter.com/RhXBVoiLXS
- Pop Base (@PopBase) February 22, 2024

This is so sad.

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Comments

[tigermilk]

This is so scary and so sad. My heart goes out to her and her family, I honestly can’t imagine. I would get transient aphasia during migraines and just that was terrifying, but to have it progress and be chronic just breaks my heart.

[hellojeds]

I just read this article about her situation: https://people.com/inside-wendy-williams-fight-to-be-freed-guardianship-exclusive-8598257

They quote an investigative journalist called Diane Dimond who talks about the concerns of having professional, for-profit appointees as conservators. The documentary also apparently shows that Wendy Williams is not getting the proper care she needs, despite being under a conservatorship.

[umilicious]

Thank you for the link. I agree that there needs to be a general overhaul on guardianship and conservatorship. There are many situations where family members and friends are not the right people to be in that role, though. Like, I wouldn’t be comfortable knowing that Wendy’s son ended up as a guardian or conservator since she already financially supports him.

[astrofisica]

I don't know much about Wendy Williams' family but yeah I am not comfortable with the above praise for third party "independent" guardianships either - https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/09/how-the-elderly-lose-their-rights

[hellojeds]

This particularly blew my mind:

Since guardianship proceedings happen in a court of equity and not in criminal or civil court, Dimond says "there's no due process."

"There's no trial, there's no right to present opposing witnesses," she says. "Usually, the judge will just take the petition, rubber stamp it, appoint the guardian or conservator and wash his or her hands of the case."

[loonyluna26]

I'm so tired of everyone blaming the vaccine. 1. Because it's stupid but 2. There's a tiny voice in my head where my panic disorder resides that worries because it's crazy her and Bruce both have it.

And I've been having health issues but also I don't know if it's covid itself that could fuck me up too.

[hellojeds]

Bruce Willis has been unwell for years - there was talk about him not being able to remember his lines and being confused long before the vaccines were available: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2022-03-30/bruce-willis-aphasia-memory-loss-cognitive-disorder

[hotdoggoz]

That article is so sad. When I heard he was doing so many low budget films in the last several years I assumed he was trying to earn as much as possible for himself and his family before retiring. But this makes it sound like his team was trying to cash in on him as much as they could.

[hellojeds]

It's so sad, he seemed extremely vulnerable and distressed at times.

[boku_no_hanabi]

Linguist here with an explainer!

1) aphasia can be a side effect of dementia or a separate phenomenon (eg caused by stroke, head injury, etc). But very common to see dementia and aphasia come together.

2) sometimes it affects pronunciation, other times meaning, other times grammar or vocab. Wendy seems to speak pretty fluently in a speech sense, but her comprehension/memory faculties are probably failing her and so her language is suffering. It’s going beyond some simple speech problems.

Just a note to make sure you have a care plan for loved ones, and talk about making a trust to protect elderly parents.

I’m praying for Wendy and hope her family can find a way to protect her. :(

[boku_no_hanabi]

Just to add - people with aphasia can seem AMAZINGLY fluent, but along with possible long or short term memory issues, they’ll often fail to understand or process. I have an aunt with severe aphasia caused by Alzheimer’s and she would be so confident when speaking, totally fluent, but slowly words like “bread” or names would be replaced by “oh THAT, I love that” or “it’s MY GUY! Oh hey guy!”

Aphasia can be a treated in cases of brain trauma/injury, and there can be some amazing recoveries, but sadly it’s not so easy in cases with dementia.

That said, fully encourage people to use support devices (tons of free apps from speech therapists now a days). And if your loved one is multilingual, they may retain one language better than another.

[braindiva]

I've worked in the field of dementia and cognitive health for a long, long time, and just wanted to clarify that symptoms of aphasia like paraphasias, circumlocutions or any kind of word-finding difficulty are often parts of the symptoms of dementia; it's just a manifestation of neurodegeneration in the brain. Sadly, as you were saying, that is not reversible at the moment. It's quite different than aphasia that occurs from causes that can be reversible or where the brain might be able to heal itself and symptoms might lessen.

For people with primary progressive aphasia (PPA), there are different variants so that's why people with that diagnosis can present differently. Not surprisingly, it also tends to impair communication more and more over time.

[breadprincess]

I have aphasia as a symptom of chronic migraines and it's very frustrating (and embarrassing). This is such a good explanation, though.

[ohwutevernvm]

Aww wow this is so sad. Damn… ;(