EmpowHer: Why should people avoid arguing with an Alzheimer's disease patient? Sonja Redman: Well, it's like in all the literature I've read, you will never win an argument with someone with Alzheimer's. They get something set in their mind and that's the way it is. Just being combative with an Alzheimer's patient, and I'll take my mother aside when she gets combative with my dad or just say, "Jack, that's not the way it was," and just remind her that the calmer you are, the calmer the patient is going to be, and the calmer my dad is. So if he says something's the way it is, we let it go at that. We've found that it's much better that way.