I am so scared this is all dementia that will get worse. My grandmother had Alzheimers and my grandfather Parkinson’s, but both were in their seventies. Neither had any mental health diagnoses prior to that. Early onset is usually familial and I don’t think anyone in my history had early onset. It’s just that the symptoms for one can overlap the other sometimes.
I’m forgetful, I have problems with simple tasks (showering is like climbing a mountain), and I tend to walk around a bit some times (hopefully attributable to akathisia). But my core intelligence doesn’t seem affected. I’ll be going ‘arg everything’s awful I’m afraid’, then someone will engage me in conversation and I’ll act somewhat normal and clear headed.
Plus it’s been four years since I started hallucinating, and if I had Alzheimer’s I probably would have declined a lot more by now. I’ve just had some moments, like not being able to find my parked car in a lot for an hour when I was hallucinating.
I realize fearing an illness can be offensive to those who actually have it, but I’ve got to kick this fear. I can cope if I know it’s not going to get worse. I hope it’s all just cognitive symptoms of Schizophrenia.
After I had a traumatic brain injury I thought I had dementia. I did really to, but i don’t know if I was causing it by thinking I had it or what. It was worse then schizophrenia. Like I would wake up and for the first ten minutes I didn’t know where I was. This was just a year ago. Its gone now.Unless you’ve been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s I wouldn’t jump to any conclusions about it.
I have a similar experience to you involving the thought f having CTE from a boxing match in college. The hallucinations torment you into thinking you are terminal. Anyways, I feel like I experience exactly what you experience and based on what I read you indeed do not have dementia. See if your shrink will prescribe modafinil, it helped my cognition.
I’m so scared of it, I can’t go out in public because something ticks wrong in my brain when I even think about it. The same happens when I have to do laundry or take a shower. I play it down and pretend it doesn’t bother me but I’m so limited because of it and really was hoping the medicine I’m on was going to help more with this.
I work in aged care with people who have dementia. Your symptoms sound more like cognitive issues associated with schizophrenia than dementia. If it’s been four years since the onset of your symptoms, and things haven’t gotten worse in that time, it definitely points more to cognitive symptoms associated with schizophrenia rather than dementia. In four years, your cognition would have declined quite markedly if you had dementia. Dementia can have a familial component to it, but sometimes it can happen sporadically. Just because you have had family members with it, doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll get it too. The reason why some people develop dementia and others don’t is not well understood. It may be that your family member just developed it sporadically.
I, at one point, did not even know how to spell my brothers name, nor know the names of people that I had worked with for over 5 1/2 years. My short term memory had faded away, and that was just the beginning. All of this was due to a nasty case of hypoglycemia. The hypoglycemia was the outcome of my sensitivity to the mercury found in my amalgam tooth fillings. Once having the amalgam fillings removed, it took8 years for me to be back to mostly my old self.
A sudden apearanse of new health problems only occurred in the countries where the amalgam fillings were introduced.
By the way, at the dentist office where I had the fillings removed, all walls were covered with letters from his patients saying thank you for giving me my life back. Their list of symptoms were the same as my own.
I was worried about the same thing as you but I realized that my mind was playing tricks on me and would constantly obsess over the same thing and I had a hard time stopping it. It eventually has subsided but I also have cognitive and memory issues. They seem to be getting better I think but hang in there!! I feel your pain.
Many people become forgetful as they become older. This is common and is often not due to dementia. There are also other disorders such as depression and an underactive thyroid that can cause memory problems. Dementia is the most serious form of memory problem. It causes a loss of mental ability, and other symptoms.
In general, if you have insight into your cognitive state and are aware of difficulties in memory then it is not dementia and more likely problems with concentration or anxiety.
There are actions for you to take to answer this question. First, schedule a complete physical to rule out or treat medical disorders that impair cognitive and emotional functioning. Then if still uncertain, consult a neuropsychologist to evaluate emotional and cognitive functioning with follow-up treatment/consults as indicated: psychotherapy, neurology, psychiatry, cognitive retraining.
You’re fine. I had the dementia delusion for awhile too. It’s just fear. I think its normal for sz patients. Not really knowing what’s going on is trippy. You’ll be fine though no worries. Its paranoia
This elderly relative of mine has had a fear that they were developing dementia. But they’ve had this fear for 10-15 years and they don’t have it. Just aging forgetfulness made worse by benzos.
If you’re still worried about it ask your psychiatrist if you have it and they can tell you pretty quickly that you’re ok I’ll bet.