What are the symptoms of dementia?
There are a number of key symptoms that you should look for when determining if someone has dementia.
Difficulty in remembering things
Difficulty in learning anything new
Difficulty in working things out
Difficulty in finding your way about and driving
Difficulty in coping with any physical and mental impairments that develop as a result of the normal ageing process.
Language Problems
Behavioural changes
These symptoms won’t come along on their own, there will be other issues depending on what the underlying disease is (Alzheimer’s/Lewy Body/Vascular etc).
Let’s look at each of the key symptoms;
Remembering things
One of the telltale signs of dementia that most people associate with the onset of dementia. It is worth noting that memory loss is a normal part of the ageing process, so we need to be mindful of not jumping on the bandwagon.
One of the key aspects of memory loss that is caused by dementia is that the person will often find that the most recent memories fade the fastest. A person with dementia is likely to remember things clearly that happened 30 years ago, but don’t remember something that was on the news last week.
One of the key signs is when people make the mistake of going home to the wrong house. They instead go to the home they lived in 20 years ago, rather than their current abode.
Memory loss can be particularly difficult on an emotional level. As the most recent events fade fast, then the chances that the person forgets who their grandchildren become very real. This can be particularly hard on young people who are very close to their grandparents.
As the dementia progresses, the person with dementia may forget who their own son/daughter is, as well as other close relatives. This can be very emotionally taxing for the family.
Working things out
To give it a more formal title, ‘loss of executive function’. Our basic understanding of how to do things often fills the gaps when memory loss kicks in, but when memory loss and executive function decline couple together, problems will soon arise.
A normal day is filled with hundreds of tasks that our brains have to carry out. We do many of these without really thinking, but when you break it down, it requires a lot of executive function.
Getting ready to go to work may seem simple but when you look at it, it requires numerous tasks to be carried out. Someone with dementia may attempt to go to work in their pajamas in the middle of the night, as they have forgotten they have retired 15 years ago, and then failed to work out that you need to put on work clothes (day clothes) to go to work.
A declining ability to work things out encompasses many different aspects of life. It may mean that the person can’t work out the way to the toilet in the night, or how to make a cup of coffee. It can manifest itself in many ways.
Difficulty in learning anything new
This is often associated with memory loss, as the person who has been shown how to do something, or is told to do something appears to forget what they have been told, when in fact, they never learned it in the first place. This can create many challenges especially if the person is admitted to hospital for the first time, and they are told how to call for assistance, what time meals are etc etc.
It’s important that anything ‘new’ is kept to a minimum, especially in the home. If there is the introduction of something new, then this has to realise that the person will need a lot of assistance getting used to it. The more obvious and basic to understand the new task/item is, the better.
It is not as though it is impossible for something new not to be learnt after diagnosis, it can obviously depend on how early the diagnosis is, but it is crucial to understand that the person’s ability to adapt to new things and learning will become more and more inhibited.
Coping with sensory/physical impairments
The ageing process will result in eyesight becoming worse, problems with teeth, hearing etc etc. A person who doesn’t have dementia will overcome these challenges by wearing spectacles/getting a hearing aid, or getting dentures for example. For someone with dementia, problems will arise as the person will struggle to learn new things, and could have forgotten how to wear or when to wear spectacles.
Another example, is that older people often need more light in their house owing to eyesight issues, the issue with light is even more pronounced for someone with dementia, as they will need more light to see objects they may have forgotten, and gives them more information to try and work things out.
This symptom can have serious consequences as well. If a person has had a fall and broke their leg for example, they may forget that they can’t stand on that leg and cause even more damage.
Try and stay positive though, as owing to technological advancements, the likes of reading glasses/hearing aids and walking aids are becoming more sophisticated and less expensive. As time goes by, more and more dementia friendly impairments aids are becoming available.
Finding your way about & driving
People suffering with dementia are often classed as ‘wandering’ as though they are lost. This is not the case. They are often aware of where they are going, but unfortunately, have forgotten that they don’t live there anymore, or that the building they are looking for was knocked down ten years ago.
As dementia takes away most recent memories, they may forget that they have moved house.
Driving is more dangerous for a number of reasons. Driving requires us to remember important rules, such as how to navigate roundabouts. The person may decide to turn right rather than left and forget the rules of the road. Driving also requires quick judgement, and as dementia reduces executive function, then the person’s ability to respond accordingly is diminished.
Conversely with dementia, the older you get, the more inexperienced you become as a driver, as you forget your most recent memories/instructions.
Language problems
If the person is struggling to remember things, and is losing the ability to perform even basic tasks, then they will also struggle to convey themselves accurately. They may forget words, forget how to construct sentences etc etc. If anything new is introduced to the home, then the person may struggle to explain how they need help to make it operate/how to be used etc etc.
Behavioural changes
The onset of some of the symptoms above can be very stressful to both the person experiencing them and the carer. This will increase stress levels and as a result, may result in disturbing behaviours. (We will talk about disturbing behaviours in more detail on a further blog). The behaviours may manifest as anger/anxiety etc etc. If the person is showing these sharp mood swings, on top of some of the symptoms above, then this will likely mean that dementia will be diagnosed or at least needs to be checked for.
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