Serious Dementia Worry

[Fishmanpa]

I'm assuming your mother doesn't suffer from dementia?

My mother suffered from dementia near the end of her life. No way in hell what you describe is anywhere near what I witnessed, even in it's early stages.

Anxiety turns you inward. You focus so much on your fears that the outside world and how you interact is compromised.

Positive thoughts

[lofwyr]

My memory has been crap for 40 years since I was about 8. About the same time my anxiety reared up. I have never associated my bad memory with anything other than worry and nerves over the years. My memory is worse now, but forgetting why you walked into a room or where you put your keys, those aren't signs of dementia. Those are signs of an active brain thinking about other things. Anxious brains are VERY active. It's actually part of our problem. We fill the voids of quiet most people have in healthy minds with catastrophic thoughts.

[ErinKC]

My memory has been crap for 40 years since I was about 8. About the same time my anxiety reared up. I have never associated my bad memory with anything other than worry and nerves over the years. My memory is worse now, but forgetting why you walked into a room or where you put your keys, those aren't signs of dementia. Those are signs of an active brain thinking about other things. Anxious brains are VERY active. It's actually part of our problem. We fill the voids of quiet most people have in healthy minds with catastrophic thoughts.

Yes, my anxiety has been in check for about a year until this past week when it spiked a bit due to (real) health concerns. And, I've been sooo absent minded! Just today I lost my keys at the grocery store. Thank God someone turned them in to customer service. Every time I get out of my car I hook my keys into my wallet (I have a small wristlet, not a big purse) and today they were just gone when I got back to my car. Not a single memory of how they could have ended up anywhere but attached to my wallet. It's 100% the anxiety!

[Ben1989]

I am now considering seeing a doctor about this. I understand how it looks. I seem to be going from one thing to the other. My throat/lung issues have worsened and I have a painful nonstop cough but i am using strategies to calm it. The dementia 'symptoms' happen every single day and have done for probably years.

But with my dementia worries things seem to be going worse. As I've mentioned, my memory is seriously bad. Names are seriously bad. I struggle to pick words and forget words. Things that I knew I used to remember. I used to be able to reel off any Friends quote, now hardly any. Pick any car and I could tell you which engine was inside of them. Now I forget the car's name let alone the engine.

My wife often says 'I just told you that' after having a conversation with her. Today I walked towards the store at lunch and got seriously confused when somebody walked out of the door. Yesterday driving, I panicked because for a good 5 minutes I had no idea where I was on a route I have taken a thousand times. Conversations I immediately forget what they have just said to me. Looking at signs i jumble the letters around in my mind. There was a sign the other day that said 'all morris homes now for sale' and I initially read it as 'am I morris homes....'

I get interested in things and then lose interest in a couple of weeks. Just a large collection of small things that happen daily. I do well to keep it off my mind but that one thing will happen and it adds to the basket of examples to make me consider seeing a doctor

[Fishmanpa]

Definitely see a doctor..... about your ANXIETY!
Positive thoughts

[Ben1989]

Definitely see a doctor..... about your ANXIETY!
Positive thoughts

You really don't think a little part of what I have said could be dementia?

[Ben1989]

Why the hell would I get confused because a guy walked out of a shop?

[BlueIris]

Because most of your mental energy is focused on your worries? There's no need to take a hostile tone.

[Ben1989]

Sorry it wasn’t hostility aimed at Fishmanpa, it was aimed at myself getting confused over something that I shouldn’t be. Sorry if it came across that way, it was aimed at myself.

I wasn’t worried about it at the time, it was my organic reaction to seeing this guy and then I got worried after getting confused over this person

[adamden]

I have an uncle who has Alzheimer's and had a great-grandmother who had Alzheimer's as well before she passed. I know Alzheimer's and dementia are two different things, but both have similar impacts.
You would forget what you are talking about the second it comes out of your mouth. The other night when I saw my uncle, he didn't even know what beer he was drinking until my dad reminded him after he asked a second time.
Definitely nowhere near what you are experiencing. You have anxiety.
A-N-X-I-E-T-Y.