As the title suggests. I'm 52 years old and a recent paraplegic. I'm loosing my vocabulary, I search for words and can't find them, sometimes I can't have coherent conversations. Sometimes I forget the date and time. Is this just middle age or something more?
I had a friend who knew that his mind wasn’t working normally. He ordered books about dementia and wrote notes in the margins about symptoms that pertained to him. He also wrote his concerns on small pieces of paper that he left in the books.
In both cases there was nothing that stopped progression. But they definitely knew and didn’t try to conceal their concern.
Word searching is not a normal sign of middle age, so this needs now to be discussed with your medical team. I can tell you, that with what you are going through, it puts a terrible toll on the body and brain in terms of anxiety and anxiety alone can cause fear, trauma, stuttering, word searching, confusion with multitasking and etc.
As to your "Do you know when you have dementia" question? Some do and some go at once into deep denial. My brother had Lewy's dementia. When, after his auto accident he was lying in the arms of his neighbor he kept repeating "I KNEW something was wrong". Later he told me his signs and symptoms, and there were many. He did indeed know something was happening to his brain, and as he went through his diagnosis he was able to describe amazingly the ways in which he saw the world differently. He would have made a marvelous test subject. "I'm not happy to know what I HAVE, and where it will take me if I am so unlucky to live so long, but I AM happy to know there is a reason I see the world so differently now than is normal" he told me.
So answer here is that ANYTHING a mess of strangers on a Forum say to you would be simply guessing. We do not know you, your medical history or what is happening with you. Talk about this with your doctors and I hope that will bring great relief to your mind. So sorry you are going through all of this. Do know that most paraplegia is caused by spinal problems lower in the spine; there is not "likely" to be a connection with what is happening in the upper brain, involving speech problems unless you have a systemic disease.
I am afraid you are down to being your own detective, so get out there starting with your Docs. Sure hope you'll update us on this mystery. As an old retired RN I can tell you that every patient I had was a "mystery" to be solved.