People living with dementia are not empty shells.

They are human beings.

Still, I hear it all the time.

They’re gone.

They’re just a shell.

They’re not in there anymore.

People say this because they’re hurting. Because the changes they see are painful and confusing. Because it’s hard to reconcile who someone used to be with who they are today.

Someone with dementia is as human as they have been for every moment of their life.

Yes, dementia changes people. It changes memory, language, personality, and behavior.

It can make someone unrecognizable in ways that feel cruel and unfair. But it does not erase who they are at their core. It doesn’t wipe away their humanity.

They feel love. They feel fear. They feel comfort.

Here’s why remembering that matters:

If we start believing that people with dementia are “gone,” we stop trying to connect. We stop talking to them like adults. We stop treating them with the dignity they deserve. And that is when the real loss happens.

People with dementia are still here. Different, yes. But absolutely still here.

And they deserve for us to see them.