I've read many articles about dementia, but I never find them to be helpful. They never give examples of anything and every case is different. Can someone explain how it's diagnosed, particularly in the early stages? I mean, everyone forgets things no matter how old they are. Some people are very forgetful and remember events incorrectly, but they don't have dementia or any other disorder that would cause forgetfulness. Going by these articles, I would say everyone has dementia. I have seen people younger than 30 who have the symptoms mentioned in the dementia articles. In the case of my grandmother, she's been saying questionable things going back at least 15 years. I never knew whether she was confabulating, lying, just trying to make conversation, or simply confused. She is someone whose nature is to kind of play dumb (say she didn't know when she very well did know). She's always been lazy and never wanted to be bothered. The only things she enjoyed were driving and socializing. When she couldn't do either of those due to mobility issues after cancer treatment, that's when I really noticed changes in her. I remember about six years ago she was so "off" that I thought by December 2016 she would have full blown dementia, but she didn't. With her, I can't tell if she has dementia or if what I'm seeing is her laziness and not wanting to be bothered to think mentally. I do think that maybe she has mild dementia, but where do you draw the line between dementia and normal forgetfulness (keeping in mind that some people are naturally super forgetful)?
even with matters of safety unless the events are unfolding in the next few minutes. The nature of memory loss is that, while they do remembers the darndest things, you can't depend on advising them what to do or not to do if they can't remember. What I was referencing is whether to acknowledge to them that the reason they are having a problem is because of memory loss or to withhold that information thinking it will be less distressing for them. I have elected to acknowledge it to my friend, when it comes up, especially early in the day so that she is less stressed by what unfolds that day. Early evening, or when she is tired or stressed, I avoid acknowledging her memory loss because she will worry about it into the night. She doesn't remember from day to day that memory loss is the culprit, so I get to make this decision almost daily.