ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY JOHN SCHMID ON OCTOBER 23, 2011
Early Symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease
The Alzheimer’s Association has defined ten early signs of Alzheimer’s disease. Everyone experiences, at one time or another, lapses in memory, difficulty finding something, or forgets an appointment. These are often part of the normal aging process, or may be caused by stress at work or home that is totally unrelated to a neurological disorder like Alzheimer’s. However, if you or a friend or family member is having trouble with several of the Alzheimer’s symptoms listed, especially if they are worsening or disrupting normal functioning, you should seek medical advice.
10 Signs Of Alzheimer’s
- Disruptive reduction in memory
Memory of recent events or recent learning is one of the first and best-known symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Repeating questions, writing reminder notes, and covering up for forgetfulness are all behavioral manifestations of this symptom. An occasional forgotten name or phone number, or a missed appointment are not necessarily early signs of Alzheimer’s. - Decrease in planning or problem solving abilities
Some people with early symptoms of Alzheimer’s have difficulty with arithmetic, mathematics, and other operations involving numbers. Activities and tasks will take longer to complete than they did before.
Accomplishing familiar tasks may require more and more help. But doing such tasks helps establish a positive self image.
- Difficulty with familiar tasks
Even in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, someone might get lost while driving to the grocery store, or walking to the park on the next block. At work, she could have trouble with a task that she has done hundreds of times before. Don’t be too concerned if you have trouble setting the video recorder to record a favorite movie: almost everyone has trouble with that…. - Confusing time and location
It is common for people with Alzheimer’s to forget what day, month, or even season it is. They might not recognize a familiar place, or forget how they got there. - Difficulty interpreting visual information and spatial relationships
This is not the same as visual problems that can be corrected with glasses, or those caused by cataracts. An example is the inability to organize letters into words or words into sentences, even though the letters are seen well enough. - More than occasional difficulty finding words and using them to convey a thought
This difficulty can be in speaking and writing, and will worsen over time. It may cause a person to stop in the middle of a sentence and restart the sentence, or calling things by the wrong name. - Misplacing items and inability to retrace steps to find them
Being unable to find the car keys occasionally is normal. It’s more like putting them in the microwave or refrigerator, and not being able to remember the steps that led to that action, like returning from the grocery store, walking into the kitchen with the shopping bags, putting the cereal in the pantry, putting the keys in the egg tray in the door of the refrigerator. When I do this, I can usually re-create my actions in my mind’s eye, and find those keys, right in the egg tray where I left them. A person with Alzheimer’s disease usually looses that ability to remember his recent activities early in the course of the disease, making that re-creation difficult or impossible.
Diminished judgement often makes people who have Alzheimer’s easy targets for scam artists.
- Poor judgment and decision making ability
People with early signs of Alzheimer’s disease are often easy marks for telephone and television sales people, and there are plenty out there who intentionally prey on people they think will be easy targets. Unfortunately, we hear plenty of stories of contractors who sell a job that doesn’t need doing, take a down payment for the work, and are never seen again.
Poor grooming and hygiene are other examples of behavior that may result from poor judgment. - Withdrawal from social situations and from work and hobby activity
Such withdrawal can result from fear of embarrassment, memory problems, or a host of other issues related to Alzheimer’s symptoms. - Mood and personality changes
Paranoia, depression and anxiety are common Alzheimer’s symptoms, but they are not the only changes that can result from the condition. Aggressive behavior, agitation, confusion and fear are also common symptoms, especially in new or unfamiliar situations or surroundings.
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Dementia Friendly America
I agree with all the points shared here, as I have been providing home health care for seniors in Amarillo. The most real life point mentioned is ‘Poor judgment and decision making ability’ which really is a cause of seniors getting picked by scammers, losing their valuables and hard earned money.