12 Warning Signs That Your Grandparents Might Have a Mental Disorder
Dementia is a brain disease that usually affects people over 65 years old. Nearly 50 million people around the world suffer from this disease, and that number is increasing every day. According to forecasts, it will be 75 million by 2030 and 131.5 million by 2050. One reason is that their relatives do not ask for medical attention in time. Incidentally, the first signs appear 5 to 10 years before the complete onset of the disease. If you notice them and send them to a doctor, it can help prolong their normal life.
12. Suspiciousness
Mistrust manifests itself in different areas of life. The most common case is when an older person thinks someone wants to steal everything from them. As a rule, they blame their relatives or neighbors. Sometimes they even think that their loved ones or neighbors are trying to poison them.
Some of them do not trust officials like police or doctors and treat them as scammers.
11. A lack of interest in everyday things
This is the case of people to whom a person was particularly careful, for example, when a grandmother rinses the dishes thoroughly and makes her bed in the morning. If it stops suddenly, it's a bad sign. This sign is often associated with the inability to cope with unusual household problems. For example, when a pipe bursts, the grandmother does nothing for herself and will probably call her parents. This is a very important symptom that should not be ignored.
10. Asking the same questions
Everyone can be forgetful, so it is important to pay attention to the frequency of these situations. If your grandmother asks you the same questions every day, it's a good idea to send it to a doctor because it could mean she's in the final stages. At first, the symptoms are not so obvious. You may repeat a question, but you will immediately realize that you have already asked this question.
9. Pointless walking around the house
Unnecessary walking can easily be overlooked: a person walking around the house, touching and rearranging things, may look like they are busy doing something. Ask them a question to know if they hear you or if they are confused.
Rearranging things is also a common behavior. For example, grandmother takes a stack of books from room to room every day because she likes it or the process calms her down. In this case, it is recommended to check if these are signs of early dementia or not.
8. Peculiar character traits get stronger
It is important not to confuse this with a sign of aging, as this is common. In people with dementia, certain traits are really exaggerated. An avid person collects all his money, including cheap coins, and hides it. However, since this is slow, parents generally believe that their grandparents are increasingly irritated.
7. Getting lost in time
It may sound scary, but most parents do not notice this symptom at all. For the elderly, it's hard to remember the date. Sometimes it is difficult for them to determine the time. You can barely understand how much time has passed since a certain time. You can be on the way to an hour and go home in 15 minutes or 3 hours. Whatever the time, they think they're gone for 60 minutes.
6. Collecting trash
There are several signs on this: an avid person can start collecting old things and refuse to throw them away. Others pick up only useless items such as cat or dog figurines, towels, and so on. One of the most telling symptoms is that a person does not want to use these collected items and literally has no storage space.
5. Inability to make realistic plans
A person dreams of impossible things. For example, they want to climb Everest or buy an extremely expensive house by the sea (if they do not have a lot of money).
4. Sudden weight loss or gain
Korean scientists believe that weight changes are related to dementia and that these changes do not have to be significant.
For men who suddenly take more than 10% of their weight, the risk of dementia increases by 25%.
For women, the risk increases by 17% under the same conditions.
This is one of the first symptoms, but it can also indicate other diseases such as cancer or heart problems. It is therefore recommended to consult a doctor anyway.
3. Getting upset about their inability to do something
It's more of a phase where you realize something is wrong. An older person may begin to notice strange characteristics in his own character and become angry. For example, if something is wrong, they can not call the person who can solve the problem, and they do not even know how others treat the problem. These cases are enough to cause a person to complain or even cry.
2. An urge to be alone
When an older person begins to notice changes, they can inadvertently avoid others. It's like psychological protection: you are afraid of this world that suddenly turned out to be completely unknown. When a family meets, that person will always complain and show that they are not satisfied. Of course, this only applies to people who were friendly and socially active.
1. Using filler words and interjections
This indicates that a person's active vocabulary is shrinking. This feature also applies to people who have read a lot and who may have been teachers or scientists. Over time, they do not use other words, hard-to-pronounce words, and so on. In order to fill the breaks, instead, the words and interjections are used.
People may also lose interest in reading books. In reality, they have trouble reading long and unusual words. When they meet them, they feel uncomfortable because they do not understand what they mean. For this reason, they prefer peace to an intellectual hobby.
Bonus: Home diagnostics
Many tests can define dementia. The best known are 6CIT, SAGE and MMSE. Each test consists of a few questions and helps us determine if a person has a cognitive or mental disorder.
Show the following test to an elderly person and give them 15 minutes to complete it. If they can only answer half of the questions, they may already have cognitive problems. In this case, it is best to consult a doctor.
We hope that you will never be confronted with this disease, but we recommend that you pay attention to the behavior of your older parents.
Do you know of other symptoms of dementia?
