What Holly Johnson said

 With my condition I'm often told I need to be really positive and have hope. Be optimistic! Woo!

Anyone who knows me would know that I'm not that kind of person. Wherein the US that type of super positive thinking would be more commonplace and second-nature, I'm born and bred in the UK and our national character is just not like that.

I remember that scene in Starship Troopers at the recruitment station where the guy behind the desk proudly says being in the force has made him the man he is today - camera pulls back to reveal he is a double amputee.

Years ago I saw Holly Johnson being interviewed after his HIV diagnosis was made public. 

"Any advice for other sufferers?" 

"No, none at all. We all have to deal with it in our own way."

I thought that really profound at the time, and now I'm suffering with an incurable disease it has even more kudos.

To me, cynic and miserable bastard that I am, I have wallowed very briefly in self-pity at times but quickly whip myself out of the mire. There is nothing to be gained and others around you won't want to be in your company either. To me, dementia is an unavoidable thing in my life, and I have to negotiate my life around it. I try to avoid pain and maximise pleasure for the most part, I read voraciously, play games, meet friends, go on walks, and share a bed with my wife and a bunch of dogs. 

Dementia certainly doesn't enhance life, and some of the time it actually impedes it, and it will get worse. So stoicism for me is the way I deal with it. A kind of emotionless 'how can we get from this point to the next point' kind of approach.

You may have another. And that is entirely, equally valid.