Hello everyone! I'm new to this forum. I have been experiencing lately being forgetful. I can't seem to have my mind focused. I have been told that my grandma died of dementia and so i was worried whether I have also inherited that from her. Thanks for any replies!
Hello Nathaniel and welcome I'm in my 60s and have days where I can't focus mentally and of course forgetful Please try not to worry on this, will only make matters worse - this process comes to us all We can help the situation by doing mental exercise like crosswords, quizzes etc - I do find this helps
Welcome to the forum, Nathaniel! Don't forget to take time to post in the introduction section and tell us a little about yourself. Oh yeah....and don't worry.....
In a long life, I am told that the knees are the first to go and since your complaint isn’t about your knees, do not worry about your brain yet.
@Nathaniel Roswell .....we all have concern about ole Al attacking us. However we must try and stay focused on the here and now.
@Nathaniel Roswell Welcome to Forum. I see you are 83 years young. I am 67 years old and have "forgetful" days...and I think most of us on here do experience this from time to time. So unless you feel you are not remembering most things now...you are probably just going through normal aging in this area. Knowing a family member had dementia can cause you to feel some stress and anxiety when you have forgetful moments in your day, etc. If this forgetfulness is occurring so much on a daily basis that it is really worrying you then I would talk to your Primary Doctor about your concerns...and he/she will be able to help you figure out whether this is just normal for your age or if you need to seek further help in diagnosis. So many things can cause forgetfulness....dehydration, stress and anxiety, etc. and many more things can add to us having forgetful moments Nathaniel. The older we get the more we may experience these moments too. I pray this is all that is going on with you.
Welcome to the forum. I wouldn't be too quick to jump to dementia. A lot of us have trouble remembering things as we get older. I am younger than you, yet sometimes I forget simple words, and have to resort to things like, "I am looking for... oh, I'm looking for that thing that I use to pound nails with." Another time, "nails" might the word that I'll drop. I find myself using my thesaurus much more now than I used to because I often cannot think of the other word that I want to use to describe something, and I have always been pretty good with words. But I don't think that I have dementia. I am just getting older and I have a lot of other things on my mind.
Haha Thanks for all your replies. Maybe it really is because I'm quite old now. Haven't been doing some mind exercises lately haha.
Went to see my brother last week. Wed was my birthday and we decided this was a good time for he and I to get together ,spouses included. They have a really nice haven where they are at nad have worked on the property long and hard to make it beautiful and relaxing. About three years ago, I had concerns about my brother and his memory. Always an active person, and in excellent health. His doctor said he should be on the cover of GQ. To me he looked awful, so thin and drawn. His wife assured me he was fine,because the doctor said so. However my brother was concerned himself with his memory. He began taking otc supplements for this. We had not been there long , when I began to notice a few questionable things. Brother and hubby went off to a hardware store. My sister in law and I had the longest talk we have ever had. Yes, his memory was very very bad. He was recently let go of his 20 year plus job. She said this was a blessing, as she could keep a better eye on him. She has decided not to go back to work, unless its from an at home job. He had to stop playing in his band, can not remember the words. I will spare you all the details, however several times he would tell me.. I have movies we can watch, do you want to watch a movie? No, think I am going to bed.. hey I have movies to watch. Th next morning, day of my birthday, my BD was mentioned, and he looked up at me, and said " gee sis why didn't you tell me it was your BD? " I could tell by the questioning look in his eye.. he had no clue about that day. This breaks my heart. But I fear mostly for the wife. She has to lean on me as no siblings or children of her own. Trying to stress to her how important it is she obtain assistance and guidance on this. One of my BF is also showing signs of this dreaded disease. SMH, I am trying to come to grips with this. So much for being healthy, wealthy and wise, in the end, your own mind, or lack of will do you in.
Gloria I'm so sorry to hear about your brother, it must be really upsetting to see him like that..how old is he?
@Holly Saunders ...yes its very upsetting. My sister in law does not think he's telling doctor everything. Very tricky as he has become somewhat verbally aggressive in the sense he knows something is wrong, but not how bad. Becomes depressed easily.She is trying to kerp him busy with lots of outside work...she thinks this helps.
I forgot to point out that what I have read says it is not necessarily genetic all the time. It becomes more than just forgetting where you put your keys. Continuously repeating or doing the same thing over and over buying certain items over and over. Forgetting an hour later completely what you ate for breakfast. This is just a few of the things that has been going on with him.
You and /or his wife really need to notify his doctor and possibly even have a face to face conversation with him. If the doctor can be made aware of all the concerns then he can schedule your brother to go in for a simple evaluation which takes all of about 5 to 10 minutes. In a matter of intervention, the doctor need not even inform your brother the reason for the visit. There are some tremendous results lately in the fight against alzheimer’s and other memory debilitating conditions which like everything, if it’s caught early then he might be able to recover some memory loss whether short term, mid or long term. Guys get pretty grumpy as much as the gals do when we start realizing that we’re getting old and some things just do not seem to function as well and we’re not in control any longer. It’s not that we hate the world, just the eminent transition from fully functional to less than that. I’m truly sorry for his condition and the worries that you and the rest of the family face. A prayer or many prayers are definitely going to be raised for his benefit........
I remember watching a documentary on Glen Campbell when he got AZ... and he was the same..his wife had to go to the doctor with him every time, because he always told the doctor he was fine, and that he just forgot things that didn't matter because his mind was already so full of everything else, he couldn't be expected to remember everything.. his wife had to explain to the doctor the truth of it all and he would get angry and deny it was as bad as she said!! He would like your brother repeat things over and over, forgetting completely he'd already said that..or that others had already told him things.. The problem was the family would be upset but the sufferer (in this case Glen) wasn't suffering at all..because he couldn't remember anything and was happy in his ignorance. Eventually of course.. things became much more complicated, he would pace around at night... he couldn't remember how to shave or shower, and then he started to become aggressive, apparently something he'd never been before, which was when the family had to have him placed in a care home... but music was something he never forgot... and even in the care home when people were visiting him, he would ask if he was playing in a show tonight.. It's a horrible horrible disease... my grandmother died of it.. fortunately quite soon after she was diagnosed in her 80's .. but so many people live with it for years, and at 68 your brother is so young, I feel for the family because it's you all who will suffer the most!!!!