Untangling Life From the Corner Office to Alzheimer's with Michael Ellenbogen

Michael Ellenbogen was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's at the age of 49. Prior to his diagnosis, Michael was a network operations manager for a Fortune 500 financial institution until difficulty with work-related tasks led to an unwanted early retirement. He is a passionate, outspoken dementia advocate who pulls no punches. In this episode we discuss the trials of seeking a medical diagnosis, living with early onset Alzheimer's, and his advocacy work that brought him to the halls of Congress and the World Health Organization.

As a world-renowned International Dementia Advocate and Connecter, Michael has been featured in nationally syndicated TV, radio, and other media outlets. He has written for blogs, newspapers, journals, and websites.

He served on the Pennsylvania Alzheimer's Disease Planning Committee and other advisory councils. He was a regular speaker at the Advisory Council on Alzheimer's Research, Care and Services and has been featured in the Alzheimer's Disease International's 2012 World Alzheimer's Report. He represented the U.S./World for people living with dementia at the World Health Organization. He is a world-renowned speaker and has shared his personal perspective with Alzheimer’s and dementia advocacy groups and research organizations, including medical students at Harvard and the United States Congress.

He is interested in motivating those with Alzheimer’s to raise their voices and reduce the stigma surrounding the disease. He believes his diagnosis is not the end for him, because he has so much more to give to the world. Michael wrote about his journey in his latest book entitled “From the Corner Office to Alzheimer's.”

Several weeks after our interview Michael sent me this update:

"As you know I had planned to stop much of my advocacy about 8 months ago. I did this because I was no longer able to keep the facts straight in my mind that once came to me very easily. At that time, I was also dealing with selling my boat and building a new house. All that was creating a lot of stress. I don’t handle that well any more.

I slowly started to exit all of my committees and went from a very busy schedule of 7 days a week to almost nothing to do. I shut down my Facebook because I no longer understood much of what I was reading and I did not want to share bad information with others. I had always prided myself to insure I gave top notch information and weeded out all of the daily junk that was on the internet. I also shut down my website as it had not been updated for about two years; I like to have things current and could no longer do it. Most recently I stopped using twitter for political reasons.

You would think with all I did I would have been less stressed but I was not. I would be at my computer all day for many months with nothing to do. I could no longer create my own schedule or work to drive my dementia agenda. While I was still connected to only 2 groups, I felt that this was the best thing for me at that time. Again, much of this is because I was questioning the accuracy I could provide to others. But I was not happy in my new role and became even more frustrated. I listened to others doing advocacy and I found that no matter how bad I was I was still better than many out there.

I continued to struggle on what I should do because I always believed if you cannot do it right do not do it at all. But I also realized the little I could bring was better then what many were doing. Then one day I received an email to join a committee again for a great think tank. I had the opportunity to bring change at the highest level and could not turn it down. So, I accepted this role knowing I could not be the person I once was. This allowed me to play a role in making it better for future generations and those impacted by dementia. This was a very hard decision for me to make and accept.

Since accepting that new position a few months ago, many great opportunities came my way again to join some of the best committees in the world. These all will have lasting impact. So, I have learned to accept that I do not need to know all the statistics I used to know and to just share what I can remember and point others to do the research that I once knew existed.

It’s easy to give up but that was not the right decision. If I would have continued down that path, I would not only have declined so much faster but others would have lost out for the little I could still share. I have been so fortunate to surround myself with the best minds in the world and they have been so great to me and came to me when I was in need to get me back on the horse to continue my work.

For that I am so grateful and the big man up there has bigger plans for me. I am such a lucky person to know you.

Read Michael’s AlzAuthors blog post: https://alzauthors.com/2016/06/07/meet-michael-ellenbogan-author-of-from-the-corner-office-to-alzheimers/

Purchase From the Corner Office to Alzheimer’s: https://amzn.to/2UMsRKU

Find Michael’s first book: The Insider's Guide to Saving Money: Tips and Examples You Can Use to Save Money, Time, and Aggravation: https://amzn.to/3lO8fy0

Note: We are an Amazon Associate and may receive a small commission from book sales.

Read his article “Dementia is Not the Problem, it’s the People Around Us,” in
EC Psychology and Psychiatry: https://www.ecronicon.com/ecpp/pdf/ECPP-09-00662.pdf

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Thank you for listening.