What were the first signs of dementia that you noticed in people close to you or in yourself?

As we all get older - more of us will have Dementia and here are some signs from others as to what to expect.

My Mother, bless her, was always a difficult woman and for decades we - behind her back - called her 'Batty Betty' as the things she would say and do were either just so self seeking it beggared belief, or were so 'off the planet' that you were left open mouthed in wonder / dismay - at how she acted sometimes. So as she got older and looking back, we realise her Dementia was getting worse, we tended to kignore as just Batty Better doing ' her thing' as she had always done.

Trouble is, while she was always an odd woman, this didn't help us in realising how her mental capacity was becoming worse and we didn't do as much as we should / could have done. Only when she was hospitalized for a UTI and the nurses told us how severe her Dementia was, did we realise. Sad, but we could have done more to help her in her confused state.

She died some 4 years later in a care home for people with dementia and she could never tell if it was me or my twin brother visiting and she could not remember much as at all at the end, which was actually a happy time as she as not missing Christmas's with the kids, did not miss her years as a top fashion model or even as a singer of some repute. She could remember precious little and was - happy in that space.

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My father began to forget his banking password and secret pin. He then started to forget really basic things and began to lose touch with reality and make basic mistakes he would have never made in the past. He was a chartered accountant whose mental maths was excellent, yet if I quizzed him his timetables, he could not remember.

It was soul destroying to watch a “once competent man” start to lose his ability to function.

I believe it must be very scary to recognize these problems in yourself when you realise you can’t do what you used to do. It is a “cruel and unimaginable illness” that steals so much, including the dignity from the sufferer.

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When my Aunt started showing the first signs of Alzheimers, she would get lost, when she was stressed. We all thought it was just the stress. I don't mean badly lost, but if she was in a mall or a hospital, she couldn't find her way to meet you.

The next step was forgetting it was dinner time.

But we all just made excuses, and didn't recognize how serious it was going to be. But since there was no cure, it was better to be in denial than for us to have started stressing two years earlier.

Then it was forgetting to turn off the oven, or burner.

That was our first clue.

Then it was having anxiety, and not knowing why. The why was because things weren't familiar anymore. She felt that she was always running late and would go out and sit in the passenger seat of the car, so she would be on time. But we weren't going anywhere.

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My mum died of this terrible disease and do not believe they Don't have a cure for it .

We first noticed it when she kept repeating herself, leaving her house keys in silly places. Even when she was in the local papershop got her papers went home my sister got a phone call your mum has not paid. She just walk out the shop, thank god we know the owner. Or it could have been the police involvement. So we said you never paid for your papers mum, she abruptly said yes I did pay him, but she didn't because her purse was still in the kitchen drawer, it just went down hill slowly in stages, before long had to go into specialist care as she was getting a bit violent at times it's heart 💔 to watch such a beautiful mum going like this. Even my young daughter used to say what is wrong with nana, how do you explain that to a 5yr old ?.She eventually took seriously ill stopped eating her weight just plummeted she died at 3am on Sunday morning. 1992.

My father began to forget his banking password and secret pin. He then started to forget really basic things and began to lose touch with reality and make basic mistakes he would have never made in the past. He was a chartered accountant whose mental maths was excellent, yet if I quizzed him his timetables, he could not remember.

It was soul destroying to watch a “once competent man” start to lose his ability to function.

I believe it must be very scary to recognize these problems in yourself when you realise you can’t do what you used to do. It is a “cruel and unimaginable illness” that steals so much, including the dignity from the sufferer.

I do not know if they were signs of dementia or simply forgetfulness as they were not paying too much attention.

I often notice that when I meet brothers and sisters and old friends, they tell me the same story and I simply say nothing and remain patient listening to what I heard before and just enjoying hearing what I knew already.

Some old people of my age that I know, are not familiar with the laws of physics and thermodynamics. I often told them that if a kettle or a pan has water boiling in it , then they need to turn down the flame and that they are using too large a burner for the size of the pan. Recently I was surprised at how many of them burn the pan or the kettle when all the water evaporates. Forgetting the kettle or the pan, on the burner, and not learning about having a too large a flame is a lesson not many old people around me are able to learn.

As far as I am concerned, during my life I never wore any “ dress gloves” but at my old age, my wife told me to use the gloves when last week I went by bus to see the doctor, so that he would fill in the medical certificate needed for me to renew my driving licence. At 85 years of age, this is necessary.

Well, I returned home without the gloves, and I just do not know where I had left them. Seeing that this was the first time that I used “dress gloves”, apart from my leather gloves which I use when I drive my motorcycle, I wonder if this can be classified as “forgetfulness” or a sign of “dementia”. Well at 85 years of age I still drive all the boats, motorcycles, bicycles and cars I have at home and I am not surprised that my ROM and RAM do occasionally get the fetch cycle wrong, I believe the RAM and ROM memories are fine and it is the fetch circuits that are occasionally overloaded with traffic! so there is a jam in my brain/ mind.

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