Quit Playing Games with My Heart - The Backstreet Boys and Dementia

Do you sometimes hear a song on the radio that takes you back to the place you were when you first heard it? The emotions well up, even the sounds and smells of that place? When I hear ‘Quit Playing Games with My Heart’, I still go back to my living room, my best friend and I sitting on a beige shag carpet in front of the stereo singing our hearts out while clutching two halves of a towel that our favourite Backstreet boy had used to wipe the sweat off his face (I shudder to think of the hygienic implications of that now). It was an autumn day and sunlight was streaming in through the balcony door. I can still feel the heat on my face and the bubble of teenage excitement bouncing around in my chest cavity.

Well, music not only soothes the teenage spirit, but also soothes behavioural outbursts in dementia patients and may help recall memories that appear all but lost.