Dementia & Foul Language – Why Some People with Dementia Develop Problems with Swearing

This short video clip below explains why some people with dementia develop problems with swearing (time: 1 minute 40 seconds).

People with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias may experience significant changes in behavior, and using foul language and swearing is a common one. This behavior change can be extremely baffling and disturbing, particularly if this type of language had never previously been heard from the mouth of the dementia patient. Understanding why this shift in behavior occurs as one progresses through the stages of Alzheimer’s disease can help loved ones accept this unwanted behavior.

There are two sides of the brain, the right side and the left side, and both play a role in language skills. The left side controls formal language, while the ride side is responsible for automatic speech, swearing, and singing. With Alzheimer’s disease, an unfortunate reality is one’s language skills controlled by the left side of the brain fail before those controlled by the right side of the brain.

Think of it this way, as a young child, one learns swear words, and somewhere along the line, he or she is told not to use those words because doing so is wrong. That being said, simply because one stops saying the words out loud does not mean that the “naughty” words don’t still come to mind. For instance, say you slam your finger in the door. The first word that likely comes to your mind is a swear word. However, rather than blurt out the word that you know you shouldn’t say, you find a substitution word from the left side of your brain, one that is considered appropriate.

With Alzheimer’s disease, not only is impulse control lost, so is the ability to find replacement words for the foul ones that come to mind. Therefore, when your loved one searches for another word to say, there is nothing but the swear word to grasp, and this is what comes out verbally.