Symptoms of Dementia

Each person will experience dementia in his or her own way.

Symptoms may include:

- forgetting dates
- repeatedly misplacing items
- repeating questions
- Frequently leaving gas stoves on or water taps running
- difficulty in finding the right words to express oneself
- difficulty understanding what people are saying
- difficulty in performing previously routine tasks
- getting lost in previously familiar surroundings
- having trouble driving
- problems making financial decisions
- mood changes, including agitation and depression
- personality changes like behaving inappropriately in social situations.



In the early stage, it may be difficult to tell if there is really something wrong. It is common for people affected by Alzheimer's disease (one of the causes of dementia) to deny that they are having problems. Family members may suspect that something is wrong. It is important to get help as soon as possible as medications can have a more beneficial effect when started at an early stage of the disease.

In the middle stage, supervision on certain daily activities is needed. Mood and personality changes may become more prominent sand problematic. For example, they may frequently become agitated in the middle of the night or wander off and become lost. Or they may lose their inhibitions, undress in public or make inappropriate sexual advances.

The late stage of the illness is marked by severe cognitive decline. The impaired person is apathetic, disoriented, and unable to find their way around the house. The person may also become incontinent and lose all intelligible speech. Eventually in the late stage, those affected are unable to care for themselves and need help with all aspects of daily life.