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A comment on Aphasia robs people of their language skills while leaving their minds intact.

Re:Aphasia robs people of their language skills while leavin... by ethanbond on Friday April 01, 2016 @04:35PM (#11408373)
A family friend has some sort of aphasia that is affecting his language first, but will end up taking his life. He's taking death head on and sharing a really remarkable story about how to die "green."

Kind of tangentially related, but an interesting adventure into things I've never really spent time to think about. https://vimeo.com/145882693

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Re:Aphasia robs people of their language skills while leavin... by thaumasiotes on Saturday April 02, 2016 @01:07AM (#11410312)
> some sort of aphasia that is affecting his language first, but will end up taking his life

Aphasia (ancient greek for "without speech") is just a condition of impairment in language production. By definition, it can't directly harm you, or do anything other than "affect your language".

It is caused by brain injuries; they can hurt you.

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Re:Aphasia robs people of their language skills while leavin... by joeyo on Saturday April 02, 2016 @01:20AM (#11410352)
As you note, aphasia is a symptom. As such it can have multiple causes. Some varieties of aphasia are caused by a degenerative disease, not injury, for example Primary Progressive Aphasia [1].

Stroke is a very common cause of aphasia, of course, but as our populations age (and as the causes of death and disaility that strike earlier are eliminated), the many varieties of age related dementia are making themselves known.

1. http://www.aphasia.org/aphasia-resources/primary-progressive...

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