Alzheimer’s is what is called a progressive disease, meaning it progressively gets worse over time. This fact makes it difficult to recognize until it’s fully set in, but there are signs of early Alzheimer’s that you can notice much before memory loss symptoms. While this may be a sensitive topic for some, it’s important to talk about these things to better look after the ones we love. As a result, our memory care experts have outlined some early signs of Alzheimer’s that you can watch for in any senior in your life below.
Time and Place Confusion
One of the biggest indicators of early Alzheimer’s is having trouble understanding time and place. By confusion with time and place, we mean not being able to comprehend a story or event that happened in the past. It may be difficult for someone to put events that have already happened in chronological order or be able to understand something that is not happening in the present. Someone who is progressing through Alzheimer’s may also begin to show confusion about how they got where they are.
Unsure of Familiar Activities
In the early stages of Alzheimer’s, you may start to recognize that your loved one is struggling to complete familiar tasks. This could be something simple like remembering the route to their best friend’s house or something that they love to do like forgetting how to knit. Although it’s normal for anyone to forget exactly how to do tasks that we engage in very often, a loved one forgetting something that they’ve done routinely for years can be a sign of early Alzheimer’s.
Mood Changes
Another indication of early Alzheimer’s is a mood change of your loved one, although it could be categorized more as a personality change. Everyone has good and bad days, so it’s not out of the ordinary for a senior in your life to have a moody day here and there. However, if their mood has consistently been different than what you are used to, it may be a signal of a more severe mental disease. If your loved one has always been “happy-go-lucky” and seemingly out of nowhere has become easily irritable and seems to be frequently upset, you should pay special attention to it moving forward.
Decrease in Socialization
If you start to notice that your loved one is showing less interest in social activities and is tending to isolate themselves more often than not, it may be a result of frustrations caused by consistently not being able to hold a normal conversation as well as they once could. Once this frustration sets in it can be difficult to get them to want to interact with others, so noticing this indicator of Alzheimer’s early on will help you be able to help them better moving forward.
Alzheimer’s disease affects millions of families every year, and it’s important that you know how to recognize the signs early on so that you can provide the right care for the loved ones in your life. If you have questions about Alzheimer’s or other memory-related diseases, don’t hesitate to contact our memory care professionals at Foxtail Assisted Living. We understand the difficulties and challenges that come with caring for someone with one of these illnesses, so we want to help you navigate the situation in the best way possible.
