Trump’s recent defense of sharing classified information with Russian officials has left confused citizens and Trump appointees alike speculating about the president’s mental stability. Though this incident wouldn’t be the first time people questioned his mental state—not by a long shot. For every regrettable comment Trump has said to a reporter or posted via his Twitter account, you’ll likely find a conspiracy video outlining how one line represents the tip of a pathological iceberg.
While many have tried from a distance, no one can accurately assess Donald Trump’s mental health, apart from a licensed physician following multiple, in-person examinations. And if you take his tweets at face value, it might be a while before we hear of Trump taking advice from a mental health professional. Needless to say, when you see a poorly edited YouTube video attempting to diagnose Trump with extreme narcissism or a personality disorder, take it with a hearty handful of salt.
As misleading as these so-called revelations may be, one recent conspiracy video about Trump possibly having Alzheimer’s actually has some important health information for the general public. In the video, YouTube talk show host David Pakman looks at transcripts of Trump’s off the cuff speeches as well as that awkward footage of him grabbing British prime minister Theresa May’s hand. It isn’t a new speculation; several other outlets have made the connection before. But what’s most surprising is Pakman’s detailed and factual description of Alzheimer’s indications—knowledge we could all use next time we ask ourselves: Is this a brain fart or a sign of dementia?
Here’s what we can learn:
Family history
Trump’s father, Fred Trump, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s when he was 87 years old. According to the National Institute on Aging, you have a much higher chance of developing the disease if you have a parent, brother, or sister diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Knowing your family’s health history and having your genes tested can help you become aware of your risk.
Difficulty speaking coherently
We’ve all experienced the feeling of being too tired to form coherent sentences after a long day. But if the problem persists on a daily basis, that could be an early warning sign of cognitive decline. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, losing track of a thought midsentence, forgetting basic words, and regularly repeating words could be signs of a deeper problem. As Pakman points out in his video, Trump has been known to exhibit these behaviors.
Age
As a 70-year-old man, Trump is not only the oldest president we’ve had, but he’s also in the prime age range for dementia symptoms. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, old age is the greatest and most widely recognized risk factor when it comes to the disease. The majority of those who suffer from it are 65 or older, with roughly 1 in 3 people aged 85 or older showing signs of Alzheimer’s.
I’ll say it again: There’s no way for us to determine whether Trump has Alzheimer’s. But for our own well-being, it’s worth knowing what those warning signs are. If we can learn something about ourselves, perhaps there’s a benefit to some of the elaborate conspiracy theories littering the web.
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Will your current friends still be with you after seven years?
Professor shares how many years a friendship must last before it'll become lifelong
Think of your best friend. How long have you known them? Growing up, children make friends and say they’ll be best friends forever. That’s where “BFF” came from, for crying out loud. But is the concept of the lifelong friend real? If so, how many years of friendship will have to bloom before a friendship goes the distance? Well, a Dutch study may have the answer to that last question.
Sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst and his team in the Netherlands did extensive research on friendships and made some interesting findings in his surveys and studies. Mollenhorst found that over half of your friendships will “shed” within seven years. However, the relationships that go past the seven-year mark tend to last. This led to the prevailing theory that most friendships lasting more than seven years would endure throughout a person’s lifetime.
In Mollenhorst’s findings, lifelong friendships seem to come down to one thing: reciprocal effort. The primary reason so many friendships form and fade within seven-year cycles has much to do with a person’s ages and life stages. A lot of people lose touch with elementary and high school friends because so many leave home to attend college. Work friends change when someone gets promoted or finds a better job in a different state. Some friends get married and have children, reducing one-on-one time together, and thus a friendship fades. It’s easy to lose friends, but naturally harder to keep them when you’re no longer in proximity.
Some people on Reddit even wonder if lifelong friendships are actually real or just a romanticized thought nowadays. However, older commenters showed that lifelong friendship is still possible:
“I met my friend on the first day of kindergarten. Maybe not the very first day, but within the first week. We were texting each other stupid memes just yesterday. This year we’ll both celebrate our 58th birthdays.”
“My oldest friend and I met when she was just 5 and I was 9. Next-door neighbors. We're now both over 60 and still talk weekly and visit at least twice a year.”
“I’m 55. I’ve just spent a weekend with friends I met 24 and 32 years ago respectively. I’m also still in touch with my penpal in the States. I was 15 when we started writing to each other.”
“My friends (3 of them) go back to my college days in my 20’s that I still talk to a minimum of once a week. I'm in my early 60s now.”
“We ebb and flow. Sometimes many years will pass as we go through different things and phases. Nobody gets buttsore if we aren’t in touch all the time. In our 50s we don’t try and argue or be petty like we did before. But I love them. I don’t need a weekly lunch to know that. I could make a call right now if I needed something. Same with them.”
Maintaining a friendship for life is never guaranteed, but there are ways, psychotherapists say, that can make a friendship last. It’s not easy, but for a friendship to last, both participants need to make room for patience and place greater weight on their similarities than on the differences that may develop over time. Along with that, it’s helpful to be tolerant of large distances and gaps of time between visits, too. It’s not easy, and it requires both people involved to be equally invested to keep the friendship alive and from becoming stagnant.
As tough as it sounds, it is still possible. You may be a fortunate person who can name several friends you’ve kept for over seven years or over seventy years. But if you’re not, every new friendship you make has the same chance and potential of being lifelong.