I was listening to NPR’s Morning Edition this morning and heard a story that I found very interesting: Improv For Alzheimer’s: ‘A Sense of Accomplishment’.
Researchers in Chicago want to know if improv will improve the well-being of newly diagnosed Alzheimer’s patients. My immediate thought was that, duh, improv can improve the well-being of anyone, but one quote from the story especially made sense.
“Improv is all about being in the moment, which for someone with memory loss, that is a very safe place,” says Mary O’Hara, a social worker at the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease Center at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “Maybe thinking about the past and trying to remember makes the person a little anxious or even a bit sad because their memory is failing. And maybe thinking about the future too much is also anxiety-provoking. So being in the moment is such a safe and a good place to be.”
As someone who’s been involved in theater for a little over twenty years now I’m well aware that what you learn doing improv doesn’t just make you a better actor, it really does make your life better all around. To be honest, I hate doing improv. I’m shy, I don’t see myself as being particularly creative or funny and it can be really hard, but I know that all those times I’ve been oh-so-uncomfortable have made me a little less shy, better at communicating, and better able to handle stressful situations. Improv has helped me envision the consequences of my actions, imagine other points of view and made me more likely to take risks. I live my life a little more in the moment because of it. Improv is good for me, it’s good for kids, it’s good for grown-ups and it’s certainly good for Alzheimer’s patients.
Sure, it’s hard and you won’t catch me saying that I actually like it, but there’s a very real sense of accomplishment and a feeling of being centered when it’s all over that makes it worth it.
Anyway, what I want to say here is take an improv class(even if you don’t have Alzheimer’s) and SUPPORT THE ARTS–they’re important and for everyone just like reading, writing and “rithmatic.”
I heard this story when I was driving in this morning. It struck me a little differently (obviously). It reminded me that my grandfather had Alzheimers and kind of scared me. But they I tried to imagine what my grandfather would have thought of the ‘program’.