Natka
24-09-14, 13:37
I am 36 and have started to notice this affect me recently. I'll be in the middle of a conversation and know that a particular word fits my thought patterns perfectly but pause and be unable to recall it....instead I'll use some alternative word or phrase that can sometimes make the whole sentence seem slightly more awkward or unnatural-sounding. Usually I can recall the word a few moments later although it is concerning that in recent days even relatively simple words like "bookshelf" and "treadmill" temporarily evaded my word retrieval capabilities. I have become very self-conscious about this to the point that I am purposefully focusing on everything I say, and am hyper-aware of hesitations or use of synonyms to replace my intended word choice. I have a history of mild obsessive compulsion disorder and health anxiety although no experience of head trauma, major accidents or long-term medication. I am extremely concerned about early onset dementia/Pick's disease or something like that, but my rational mind reminds me that my health anxiety has diagnosed me with heart problems, cancer and ALS in the last few years so hopefully this is another false alarm. On top of that I use the internet a lot (both at work and in my leisure time) and take in an awful lot of information so perhaps that has something to do with it. The only other symptoms I have are failure to recall names of celebrities such as actors or sports personalities occasionally that I used to know and things like names of movies and songs. Last night I couldn't remember the name of "Ashton Kucker" for a while after seeing him on TV, same applied to "Charlize Theron" and "Natalia Portman". Sometimes these names come back to me later - but the point is I used to be able to rattle off these names instantly. However these are usually people or references that I have not encountered in a while and are not super famous. I did an online facial recognition test and got a score of 97% so if this is something sinister then I am in the early stages.
What do you guys think? Is this worth worrying about? Or am I just being a hypochondriac as usual? My concern is that this may worsen as I get older and of course because I am very self-conscious about it at the moment it's causing me a lot of anxiety. One other possibility that fits my situation is attention deficit disorder (but then again as a child I never really had this issue) as I can find it difficult sometimes to focus on long articles or when a person rambles on - I am easily distracted with my own thoughts. I don't really want to go to see my physician about this because I am pretty sure she'll laugh me out of the office based on my history of health anxiety.
I also read a medical paper about fronto-temporal dementia and it mentioned that sometimes one of the early signs is emotional bluntness and this is usually heralded by depression,anxiety or hypochondiacal rumination which are all things I am guilty of. Then again I have suffered from some kind of health anxiety and could be described as emotionally blunt since I was a teenager. Another potential stressor here is the fact that my girlfriend is pregnant - all in all it's a pretty terrible thing to be preying on my mind on a daily basis and my main fear is that it'll be swept under the carpet unless my symptoms slowly progress. How can I rule this out? How can I measure if it is indeed progressing? Am I just focusing on it too much or is there some kind of neurodegenerative disease in store for me? I am fearful and constantly alert to subtle changes in my communication and memory. This disease usually hits people from their 40's onwards but has affected people younger than that. It is rare and there is no certainty that I have it but I can't get the possibility out of my mind especially when I experience unusual symptoms. Is all I can do wait and see? That thought is horrifying to me. I need to break free from these self-destructive thoughts but I don't know how while this awful disease remains a possibility.
What do you guys think? Is this worth worrying about? Or am I just being a hypochondriac as usual? My concern is that this may worsen as I get older and of course because I am very self-conscious about it at the moment it's causing me a lot of anxiety. One other possibility that fits my situation is attention deficit disorder (but then again as a child I never really had this issue) as I can find it difficult sometimes to focus on long articles or when a person rambles on - I am easily distracted with my own thoughts. I don't really want to go to see my physician about this because I am pretty sure she'll laugh me out of the office based on my history of health anxiety.
I also read a medical paper about fronto-temporal dementia and it mentioned that sometimes one of the early signs is emotional bluntness and this is usually heralded by depression,anxiety or hypochondiacal rumination which are all things I am guilty of. Then again I have suffered from some kind of health anxiety and could be described as emotionally blunt since I was a teenager. Another potential stressor here is the fact that my girlfriend is pregnant - all in all it's a pretty terrible thing to be preying on my mind on a daily basis and my main fear is that it'll be swept under the carpet unless my symptoms slowly progress. How can I rule this out? How can I measure if it is indeed progressing? Am I just focusing on it too much or is there some kind of neurodegenerative disease in store for me? I am fearful and constantly alert to subtle changes in my communication and memory. This disease usually hits people from their 40's onwards but has affected people younger than that. It is rare and there is no certainty that I have it but I can't get the possibility out of my mind especially when I experience unusual symptoms. Is all I can do wait and see? That thought is horrifying to me. I need to break free from these self-destructive thoughts but I don't know how while this awful disease remains a possibility.