Hi I'm new here as have been searching all night for information about dementia and anxiety symptoms. Apologies in advance for long post but just want to put things in some form of context.
I'm concerned about my uncle, a very young 71 year old. He used to be the life and soul not just of the party but of absolutely everything. Lots of things in life knocked him in succession starting with redundancy from his job in his mid 50s after total loyalty to the company, his treatment then and thereafter I now believe to have been the trigger point for him slowly slipping into depression and, more latterly, anxiety. His hearing has deteriorated almost in conjunction with his anxiety so I (and others) felt that this was feeding into his feelings, for someone so sociable to suddenly be cut off from people and to constantly be worried about saying the wrong thing (because he couldn't hear what someone was saying) was incredibly tough to say the least.
He has seen doctors and now had two brain scans; first time he was told dementia was ruled out as there was nothing untoward on the scan, more recently my auntie has been told that although his scans are clear dementia isn't diagnosed by them anyway. His doctor has recently changed his medication in case he was having a reaction to that but this past few months he is increasingly disorientated, upset, and frightened; at times his confusion is so bad he doesn't recognise his wife and tells her he wants to go home to his wife.
I can see from researching that anxiety symptoms can often be confused for dementia. But has anyone here ever heard of anxiety/depression symptoms being so bad that they can cause these extremes of not recognising your own home or your own wife?
We're all so worried about him and just desperate to help him not be so distressed as when he's calmer he's fully aware of what's going on for him and then upset that 'he's' worrying us.
Thanks in advance and apologies again.
I'm concerned about my uncle, a very young 71 year old. He used to be the life and soul not just of the party but of absolutely everything. Lots of things in life knocked him in succession starting with redundancy from his job in his mid 50s after total loyalty to the company, his treatment then and thereafter I now believe to have been the trigger point for him slowly slipping into depression and, more latterly, anxiety. His hearing has deteriorated almost in conjunction with his anxiety so I (and others) felt that this was feeding into his feelings, for someone so sociable to suddenly be cut off from people and to constantly be worried about saying the wrong thing (because he couldn't hear what someone was saying) was incredibly tough to say the least.
He has seen doctors and now had two brain scans; first time he was told dementia was ruled out as there was nothing untoward on the scan, more recently my auntie has been told that although his scans are clear dementia isn't diagnosed by them anyway. His doctor has recently changed his medication in case he was having a reaction to that but this past few months he is increasingly disorientated, upset, and frightened; at times his confusion is so bad he doesn't recognise his wife and tells her he wants to go home to his wife.
I can see from researching that anxiety symptoms can often be confused for dementia. But has anyone here ever heard of anxiety/depression symptoms being so bad that they can cause these extremes of not recognising your own home or your own wife?
We're all so worried about him and just desperate to help him not be so distressed as when he's calmer he's fully aware of what's going on for him and then upset that 'he's' worrying us.
Thanks in advance and apologies again.