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