Soleil Moon Frye on Her Father's Alzheimer's Disease

Dr. Travis: Actress, wife, mother and Alzheimer’s awareness advocate; please welcome Soleil Moon Frye. Soleil Moon Frye: Oh well, it’s a very long goodbye that we go through so I can connect to you so much in your journey. Dr. Andrew: It is a long goodbye, that’s a good way to put it. Soleil Moon Frye: It is. It’s so heartbreaking. And I think if they teach us one thing – the one thing my father taught me more than anything was to live in the moment because the moment is all you have when you're going through this. And for many years we didn’t know that he was sick and that he was in early stages of Alzheimer’s because he hid it from us. He was an actor, so he was the con artist like he literally had hid it from us for so many years. Dr. Andrew: And that’s such a big part of the disease too. Soleil Moon Frye: Absolutely. I mean he had literally he had Post-it notes all over his home and he would draw – he was an acting coach and he would draw a graph and have everyone sit in the same spot every week so we were completely blinded we had no idea. As the years progressed he finally came more in terms with it. He said it was like it was a gray space in his brain and that this gray space just kept on building and building. And I think for him, you know, his long-term memory was still so incredible. He could tell you about his journey with Martin Luther King. He could tell you about the Civil Rights Movement and being in Alabama and these incredible, vibrant – he and Dennis Hopper making Easy Rider together, but if you ask him what day it was or who the president was, he would have no idea. Dr. Jim: How is he doing now? Soleil Moon Frye: He is now in a very, very, very late stages; so now he doesn’t recognize me, you know it’s the gray space. Dr. Lisa: What do you think are the biggest misconceptions about Alzheimer’s? Soleil Moon Frye: I think one of the biggest misconceptions is that this is something that happens to our great grandparents and our grandparents. I was just at Capitol Hill in Washington DC where we were advocating for Alzheimer’s Awareness and Research, and I was with Jay who is 53 years old who has an 8-year-old daughter this is the face of Alzheimer’s. And the face of Alzheimer’s is changing and the concept is, this is only something that happens to older people is just not the way it is anymore. And the more that we share and are aware of that the more we can have early detection and make it change, we raise awareness, we can do the research we need to do to stop this disease. Dr. Travis: Thank you for being here today, and for all the works that you're doing to raise awareness. Soleil Moon Frye: Male: (SINGLE SPACE AFTER PERIOD. Start your transcription here. Remove this line. Please use the video to check the names and change the speaker tagging with the correct names of the speaker) Female: Male: Female: