Symptoms of Dementia

When we start getting older, we will notice that out brain isn’t working as fast as in the time we were 18. We start forgetting small things like were you put your wallet or the name of someone you just met. Many people start worrying if these maybe symptoms of Dementia. If they join the hype they will try to train their brain and improve it, only to find out that this isn’t possible. Dementia is a syndrome that will affect every person on a different way. There is no way in foretelling how the disease will affect you or how fast it will go. But how can you recognize that your or your loved one has Dementia?

Dementia syndrome is there in different forms. Each form affects a different part of the brain and this will cause some different symptoms for every person. Alzheimer disease is the best known Dementia type. This one will foremost target your memory at first.

When people are starting to forget small things many of them will be afraid that they have Dementia. This worry is almost 95% of the time incorrect if you are 65 years old. If you are younger than 65, you shouldn’t even think about Dementia because the chance will be very small. The best sign that will show if someone has Dementia is constantly forgetting things that they shouldn’t forget. People have difficulties handling their jobs and will get sudden complaints. They will forget where they put their keys not only once, they will forget it many times. They will ask you the same question over and over again, sometimes just seconds after you just answered the question. The memory decline will direct mostly on new things they have to learn, like new names and things they did last week. They can tell you very detailed stories about the past and this can fool most people. In fact, talking more and more about the past is also a symptom that someone can have Dementia.

Decline in memory is not the only symptom seen in Dementia. People will often have problems with their language and speech. They have troubles remembering words or have totally forgotten them. They will make use of substitute words for the ones they don’t remember anymore. These words can be synonyms, or words that don’t exist in our language. Sometimes when people are forgetting how to speak the words, they could also forget the meaning of the words.

Another symptom of dementia is having problems with performing task that in the past were very easy. For example, they could mix up the steps to make coffee. This could also happened with clothing yourself; not knowing where to put your trousers. This symptom is probably less understood, but causes many problems because people just can’t perform normal every day tasks anymore. They need help with everything from going to the bathroom to washing your teeth.

This is one of the symptoms you see first with Dementia. They can not tell you what day it is and eventually will tell you they live in the year 1988 or that they are in their former house and not in the one bought 2 years ago. Along with memory loss, this symptom is seen the most at the first stage of dementia.

This one is the hardest. Persons can actually become a totally different person than the one you have known for so many years. It is hard to handle if someone suddenly is talking about nothing else than sex or is talking a bit to loud in a restaurant. They can be aggressive or just don’t want to do anything anymore. It is hard to understand that Dementia can actually be the cause of this sudden change of personality. It is the main cause in that people are not able to live at their home anymore and have to move to a nursery home.

There are some other symptoms like having difficulties to concentrate, stop doing things they like,  loosing control of their body balance and so on. If you have doubts if you or your loved one is showing symptoms of Dementia, you should always visit your doctor to test it. The chance you don’t have it is much bigger and it could be something that can be cured.