Is this dementia?

I have been forgetting simple things such as names of family members, places and even my personal objects lately. I am worried if this is just a memory loss or the beginning of Dementia. I am 65-years of age.

 Abe (by SMS)

 With cases of dementia on the rise across the globe, it’s not surprising that many of us are on red alert for signs that we’ve succumbed to the degenerative brain disease. There’s also been a huge spike in the disease being diagnosed in younger people—those aged 60 and under—but their struggles are often written off as symptoms of a midlife crisis, with changes in behaviour including a newly adopted belligerent attitude and hard drinking, often ignored.   

But when do you really need to worry that you’re heading towards catastrophic memory loss?  A dementia expert said that while it’s easy to start panicking if you keep forgetting where your keys are, or you repeatedly walk into a room only to turn around empty handed, you’re most likely fine. Early on forgetfulness could be mild, affecting memory for places or things that have happened in the past.

You may notice someone: repeating the same question frequently, struggling to remember the name of objects around the house, misplacing items, like leaving car keys in the fridge, having difficulty concentrating on daily tasks, finding it hard to follow the storyline of a TV programme. Another early sign is changes to perception and awareness. People experiencing memory and thinking problems may have less insight into how symptoms are disrupting their everyday life than the people around them. This is why it’s important for loved ones to notice these changes and take them seriously. 

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Noticing dementia symptoms in yourself or your loved ones is the first step to getting help. Mild forgetfulness, changes to perception or the way we speak can be early indications that something is wrong. It’s important to know that these symptoms can have other causes, such as low mood, or the side-effects of medications. But they could be early signs of dementia. In its early stages, dementia can be difficult to tell apart from other conditions. Symptoms can be mild and not easy to spot. And that means it can be hard to know how much to worry. That’s understandable – it’s something many of us know little about.