Bruce Willis, who celebrated his 67th birthday on March 19, gained recognition with the role of John McClane in the Die Hard franchise. He appeared in over a hundred movies and the most recent one, the heist action film A Day To Die, came out just at the beginning of March.
People watching the movie didn’t expect that a couple of weeks later, they would find out that their beloved star was diagnosed with such a scary disease.
It was announced on March 30 by Bruce Willis’ family on the actor’s Instagram. They said that Bruce “has been experiencing some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities. As a result of this and with much consideration Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him.”
The family promised to go through this tough period together and “Live it up,” as Bruce always says and wanted to let his fans know what is going on because they are aware of how much Bruce means to the people who follow him.
If you have never heard of aphasia, it is a language disorder. As Johns Hopkins Medicine explains, the disorder can be “caused by damage in a specific area of the brain that controls language expression and comprehension. Aphasia leaves a person unable to communicate effectively with others.”
The damage in the brain can be caused by a stroke or a head trauma, but it can also come from slowly growing brain tumors or other diseases that cause permanent damage to the brain.
The symptoms of aphasia listed by Mayo Clinic include speaking in short sentences which don’t always make sense, substituting words or sounds with others, saying words that don’t exist and not being able to follow a conversation. It affects not only spoken language but also written language and people may have difficulty comprehending written text and writing sensible sentences.
Aphasia is more common than Parkinson’s Disease, cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy. According to the data of the Nation Aphasia Association (NAA), about 180k Americans acquire the disorder every year and about 25-40 percent of stroke survivors acquire aphasia.
Bored Panda contacted NAA and talked with its president Darlene S. Williamson. We were curious why aphasia is less talked about than other diseases even though it is more common. She shared her opinion, "there are a couple of reasons why aphasia is not well known or understood. The first is that it is a communication disorder. When someone has difficulty communicating, they are either hesitant or unable to talk about it, and/or they tend to hide it due to embarrassment. Also, the primary cause of aphasia is a stroke. People relate stroke to physical impairment, and tend to focus on that because it is visible and more easily understood. It is, for this reason, that the NAA is grateful to the Willis family for using the word aphasia which is bringing attention to the disorder."
The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders says that there are two categories of aphasia: fluent and nonfluent. The most common type of fluent aphasia is Wernicke's aphasia and people who have it may “may speak in long, complete sentences that have no meaning, adding unnecessary words and even creating made-up words.”
The most common type of nonfluent aphasia is Broca's aphasia, which can cause “right-sided weakness or paralysis of the arm and leg because the frontal lobe is also important for motor movements. People with Broca's aphasia may understand speech and know what they want to say, but they frequently speak in short phrases that are produced with great effort. They often omit small words, such as ‘is,’ ‘and’ and ‘the.’”
Another problem besides not enough people knowing about it is that a person can have it but not be diagnosed with it. Darlene explains that because aphasia is caused by strokes, brain injuries and tumors, the bigger concern is to recover the person's physical health and keep them alive that is why "there can be a delay in diagnosing the aphasia, and possibly a delay in thoroughly assessing all of the components of the aphasia, which is done by a speech language pathologist. If the aphasia has a sudden onset, like in the case of a stroke. it can be confused with being drunk or use of drugs. If the aphasia comes on gradually, as is the case with the specific type of aphasia termed Primary Progressive Aphasia, it co-exists with a decline in cognitive abilities. In this case, the cognitive loss often becomes the focus while the communication component is overlooked."
Even though it seems that aphasia makes a person stupid, NAA claims that “It affects the person’s ability to process language but does not affect intelligence.” They put it this way: “for people with aphasia it is the ability to access ideas and thoughts through language – not the ideas and thoughts themselves – that is disrupted.” However, it can be isolating because people who have it can’t understand people who don't, and vice versa.
The president of NAA admits that mental health of people who have aphasia suffers, "statistically, at least 35% of people with aphasia suffer from depression. Why? Because they are living with a little known and poorly understood disorder, and, just imagine having your communication ability taken away from you. For most of us, our communication is at the heart of who we are; losing it robs our identity. It is imperative for quality of life to address these issues to be sure the person with aphasia stays connected with their family, their friends, their entire circle of influence."
But there are ways to help people with aphasia and it helps even if you let them know that you are trying to keep them a part of a conversation. NAA sums up the communication process as an anagram for the name of the disease: A: ask simple, direct questions, P: provide multiple communication options, H: help communicate if asked, A: acknowledge frustration, S: speak slowly and clearly, I: if you don’t understand, say so, A: allow extra time.
Aphasia doesn’t have a specific cure. It can go away after a couple of months or the process of getting better can last years or even decades. There are strategies to help with getting better and it depends on both the person with aphasia and the people who surround them.
Also, Darlene thinks that "the goal for people with aphasia is to live successfully with the aphasia. It is not to 'cure' the aphasia. People can live full and productive lives with aphasia. Particularly if they have expert treatment and a solid support system. I cannot overstate the value of this."
So the future of a person with the disorder is full of uncertainty at first, but there is a possibility they could get better and better. So hopefully all the good wishes to Bruce Willis to get better and recover coming from celebrities and fans will come true with the help of the family and friends he is surrounded by.
Not only that, this case brings the needed attention to the disease and Darlene is grateful that the Willis family is talking about it loud and clear. She says, "One significant wish of people living with aphasia is that the word was generally known, such that they could say to a stranger "I have aphasia" and that person would understand and communicate effectively with them with patience and respect, allowing extra time to process and respond."
The NAA is also trying to bring more awareness about this condition and support families which have a family member that has been diagnosed with aphasia, "We know that aphasia happens to the entire family and long term support is needed to live with this diagnosis successfully. And the NAA has resources and experts to educate families and the public. We are focused solely on aphasia, and deeply committed to this population."