Senile Dementia ... Memory Loss is an Early Sign

Senile dementia can be easily overlooked in its early stages.

Dismissing your short term memory loss as a harmless sign of aging (like I did with my Mum) is a mistake you may regret for the rest of your life. It can delay a diagnosis of dementia by a physician. This lack of diagnosis will lead to delays in treatment and the implementation of coping strategies.

Memory Loss that Disrupts Daily Life

Distinguishing between what is mere forgetfulness and what is a symptom of dementia is not easy.

If you know the 10 warning signs of senile dementia you have started down the path to helping yourself, your parent or loved one. These 10 warning signs allow you and your family to be aware of what is abnormal behavior.

When my Mum started to show significant signs of memory loss my sister and I were not aware of these dementia signs and consequently missed the importance of them. We believed Mum had senile dementia and it was a normal part of aging.

We have also discovered that early onset alzheimers is much more prevalent than people realize - make sure your loved one isn't being mis-diagnosed.

We now know after having traveled the journey with Mum how valuable the list is. Identifying that there is a problem and being able to talk to your loved one about the issues is one of the major initial hurdles that families face.

The other thing we have since discovered is that with good lifestyle choices alzheimers prevention is within anyone's reach.

Coping with dementia

One of the most difficult things that my sister and I faced, apart from not knowing the 10 warning signs of dementia, was not being able to discuss our Mum's changes in behavior with her without her becoming aggressive.

We did not know it at the time, but Mum had Frontotemporal Dementia which progresses more rapidly than Alzheimer's Dementia. One of the symptoms of this type of dementia is changes in personality.

The Alzheimer's Association has some excellent material to help families. I highly recommend you review their steps to diagnosis of dementia article.

Download the document Know the 10 Signs (Early Detection Matters) at the Alzheimer's Association

Go to the home page of memory-improvement-tools.com