Dementia

[Eggy]

I've been worried about this for a long time, I am only in my 20's but last night i had to go the hospital to be checked out by a GP because i have been ill for the last week or so.

Last night the doctor done my temperature, blood pressure, checked me with a stethoscope and looked in my mouth and made me lay down so he could check my stomach.

When he was examining me with the Stethoscope i remember him checking my back with it but can't remember him checking my chest area with it at all and at the end of the consultation i thought how do you know if my chest sounds clear if you haven't checked it? i think i was looking forwards or up at the ceiling but not remembering him doing it terrifies me for some reason and makes me feel like i am going mad or have got dementia.

My memory has been a bit bad for quite some time but within the last few weeks i had a memory test done at the doctors called a Mini Mental State Examination and i scored full marks on it but i'm still worried about my memory.

It isn't normal to forget something like that within a minute or two is it? How could i forget that he had checked my chest?

I know getting dementia in your 20's is unlikely but it's not impossible is it?

[alicegreen]

he was probably fairly quick and efficient at checking, and you were preoccupied as you were in a state of heightened anxiety.
Believe me. If you wre in any way demented or even confused you would not be worrying about being so, and you would never have scored 100% on the MMSE!
It is normal to have memory problems with depression or anxiety.

[Vanilla Sky]

You do not have dementia in your 20s believe me

[sb001f8994]

Hi,
We all get forgetful from time to time, sometimes just because we are so engrossed in a thing other little things around dont register. I do this all the time and no matter how much I try to remember it just doesnt happen. We can fret over this for hours and make ourselves more anxious or we can just accept that our poor over worked brains cant remember every little detail of the day and froget about it. I know this is easier said than done and when we have something lodged in our mind it is pretty hard to chuck it out. But try not to fret about this too much and take comfort in the fact you are not alone, there's thousands of us desperately trying to remember something right now!
Take care,

[Eggy]

he was probably fairly quick and efficient at checking, and you were preoccupied as you were in a state of heightened anxiety.
Believe me. If you wre in any way demented or even confused you would not be worrying about being so, and you would never have scored 100% on the MMSE!
It is normal to have memory problems with depression or anxiety.

I do get confused sometimes and my memory definitely isn't very good, I guess what worries me is the fact that the doctor did check my chest with a stethoscope and he would have had it on my chest but i must have forgot instantly as i couldn't remember him doing it although 3 or 4 hours later i think i remembered slightly that he did infact do it.

Yes i had an MMSE memory test a couple of weeks ago that i did quite well on, i struggled slightly at times but still managed to get every question right, I had to do word recall, answered questions about orientation and had to write sentences and do some calculations but obviously that was 2 weeks ago and this bad memory loss/lapse happened yesterday.

I know i was looking forwards when the doctor was using the Stethoscope and i was concentrating on breathing in deeply as i was told to do but i still don't know how i managed to forget instantly, I would have looked stupid if i said to the doctor you never checked my chest and he had, I remember everything else though and all the other things he did and i remember everything he said and what he asked me just cannot remember that one thing.

Plus i have never had a doctor diagnose me with anxiety/depression only panic attacks.

What i have been thinking if i was in the early stages of dementia would i forget that i forgot whether the doctor did it if you know what i mean?

[Eggy]

You do not have dementia in your 20s believe me

It's not impossible, Not common but it can happen, Some people get it in their mid-late 30's but that isn't common either, I am 29 years old.

Dementia scares the hell out of me especially when my Nan died of it at the age of 73.

[jothenurse]

A person usually has anxiety and some depression with a panic disorder.

[Jeanine25]

Funny you mention this;
A few weeks back I was sat at the computer doin my 'thing' and my dad who is staying with me said "What time did you ask me to do the babies bottle for you last night"; I looked at him all confused and argued the fact that he claims I asked him to make my son his milk.

I had absolutely no recollection of this and I worried for days and days that I was loosing my mind and going crazy!
I even laid in my bed panicking that i'd forget to feed my son or something; it bothered me so much that I didnt go to sleep for more than about half hour at a time.

I managed to convince myself of all sorts!!! I truly believed I was going insane.

[Jeanine25]

It's not impossible, Not common but it can happen, Some people get it in their mid-late 30's but that isn't common either, I am 29 years old.

Dementia scares the hell out of me especially when my Nan died of it at the age of 73.

My gran had it in her 80's..
We slowly saw her going "mad" but we didnt for a second think it was dementia- we just thought she was being a "silly old grandma"!!!

[MrBlue]

Hey Eggy, Dementia is impossible at a young age, my Auntie has Alzheimers and we learnt a lot about the disease through her having it. This is definately a part of health anxiety, irrational fears! You will have a lot on your plate being ill aswell as having anxiety, I know that when I was ill with cold a few weeks back, I thought I was dying, part of anxiety! all of these things can cause us to forget small things.
hope this helped :)

[Eggy]

Last night i had my step son staying with me and his mum told me to make sure he got changed when he got in, However i forgot to tell him and he had to remind me about 4 hours later.

Then i said once i had finished my dinner i would do his dinner and i forgot and about 30 minutes after i had my dinner he said you haven't done my dinner and i thought oh yeah i forgot about that as i knew i had said i was going to put it in after doing my dinner then i went into the kitchen and i was thinking about something else but i forgot yet again to put his dinner in but he came into the kitchen to make sure i was doing it so i then though how did i forget about that again?

My main cause for concern with my memory happened this morning, I took my step son to school and my other step sons were at their mums house and my daughter was at her mums and they had all got up late and their mum was due to meet me up at the school and i thought she doesn't really need to come up to the school apart from to see her step son off to school but then when i was waiting up at the school i saw my daughter with her mum and i thought how the hell did i forget about my own daughter and forget that her mum (my ex) was bringing her up to take her to school? it's a regular thing and i never thought about my daughter for one minute for some reason.

I have no idea why i forgot about my daughter or why i forgot she was fetching her up to the school it just never crossed my mind and i must have forgot about her but as i said 3 days a week i go up to the school with one of my step-kids and my daughter always goes up with her mum to go to school but today i remembered about my step-kids but as i said above i thought that my ex never really had to go up to the school but when i saw my daughter with her mum i wasn't shocked as such but i thought oh yeah of course she has to come up to the school to bring my daughter up.

[Eggy]

Hey Eggy, Dementia is impossible at a young age, my Auntie has Alzheimers and we learnt a lot about the disease through her having it. This is definately a part of health anxiety, irrational fears! You will have a lot on your plate being ill aswell as having anxiety, I know that when I was ill with cold a few weeks back, I thought I was dying, part of anxiety! all of these things can cause us to forget small things.
hope this helped :)

Dementia isn't impossible at a young age! I have read stories of people in their mid 30's getting Dementia, As i said in my first post it isn't common at all and is unlikely but still possible.

[Vanilla Sky]

The fact that you remember after what you have forgotten ( if you get me lol ) is another thing that tells me it's not dementia . And anyway IF you ever did get it , you would not be as aware as you are and questioning everything, believe me i have worked with people with dementia for a number of years now

:)

[Rachel W]

One other thing to add. Doctors can hear the lungs a lot more clearly through the back, so perhaps he didn't even listen at the front. Or maybe HE forgot!

I have been panicking about memory a lot lately, sometimes forgetting things I have known in the past but info I haven't used. I am really stressed right now and have been for a while. I have always found that the more stressed I am the worse my memory is, and once I start worrying about it, it gets worse. I know what you are going through. I am sure that you are fine. Try some meditation once a day and think positive thoughts.

God Bless.

[SickofIt]

Everyone forgets things, especially during heightened anxiety. I know the thought of dementia is probably still in your mind, but don't dwell on it, you're very likely too young. I do panic myself sometimes about memory issues, but we all lose a little as we age and it's normal.

[Rachel W]

Just to reopen the topic. I have a lot of stress and worry (pretty much 24/7). I have sometimes worried about my memory, and it seems that once I start worrying about it the worse it gets. Also, since I started worrying about it I have on occasion used the wrong word in a sentence. Can stress cause this kind of issue. I know that in the past when talking to people I have occasionally done this, but this was a long time ago (maybe during stress?) but hadn't noticed that I had done it in a while.

Now I am constantly checking what I am remembering and saying. Can anyone reassure me that stress can do this and if I lower my stress then things will get better as they have in the past.

My mind is constantly bogged down with worries and my mind feels fuzzy.

Please help! I am 39.

[paula lynne]

General Anxiety Disorder can gives us worries 24/7.:mad:
I find it helpful to write everything down, hubbt laughs but it really helps.:) Your not going mad or anything, and being forgetful affects everyone to a degree, anxiety heightens that. I mean hubby laughs.)