Is dementia inherited?

Heather

Registered User
May 30, 2003
2
0
Seeing as my mother now has dementia, and her mother did before her, will I get it? My sister? My daughter? Every time I forget something I am getting paranoid. People tell me it's because of the stress/anxiety that my GP has signed me off school with, but I can't help worrying. Mum spent about 10 years asking this same question and being repeatedly told her failing memory was normal - well they were wrong.

If it happens to me, I hope there is either a cure, or I can find the strength to take my own life before I am too incapable. How will I know, it seems that you don't get a diagnosis until you no longer are able to understand it.
 

Dawny

Registered User
Jun 16, 2003
3
0
Grimsby
Hi there Heather,

I too have the same worries because my mother has alzheimers, her mother, her sister and her brother also had the condition. Like you every time my brain disengages I worry. In fact I was begining to make it worse and had to get a grip of the situation. I have a great partner and yet I am so scared that he will finish up having to take care of me that I have tried to end the relationship many times.

However I have realised that all of us only have the, 'here and the now', and that we have to make the very best of every day. Worrying about mine and my childrens future spoils the time we all have together.

My mum is still beautiful and I like to think that she isn't suffering and that perhaps the world she is now in is free from the stresses of the REAL world. Her smile is lovely and she still laughs at my dads silly jokes. Who knows what the future will bring for any of us. All I can say is that there is no certainty about life and I am going to enjoy the time I have with my mum and MY time to the full.

I wish you very best wishes and I hope that you will try not to be so scared. I know exactly how scary it is.