I forget stuff… therefore I have dementia… Right…???

Over the years I've hosted hundreds of dementia education events in the community to thousands of people. I’ve also been interviewed by TV, radio and newspaper journalists, and I’m also a newspaper columnist. One of the most common questions I’m always asked is….  “Do I have dementia?”

Well, lets discuss just that.

Generally speaking, when I'm about 10 minutes into one of my presentations, I start to see some expressions on some of the faces of the audience and I know what they're thinking.

They're thinking “have I got dementia?”

Well, I guess it’s quite a natural question to have especially if you're at one of my presentations, I'm sure some of you have been thinking have “I got dementia?” or “am I developing dementia?”.

So let's discuss this a little bit more.

Okay, so you think you may have dementia. Why? Because you forget things? You forgot where you left your car keys? You forget the names of some neighbours down the street that you don't see very often?  Or you forget have you seen that movie before? Have you ever walked into a room one day and thought  – “what am I doing in here?” and “why did I come in here?”. You can’t remember why you are there. Then you walk out of the room and then you suddenly remember why you went into the room in the first place.

Guess what? All of that is normal. It’s not dementia, you are just simply forgetting things.

Lost my car keys… found them in my shoe.

Why do you misplace your car keys? I regularly misplace my car keys at home. It's not uncommon for me to go looking around because I usually put them in one place, but sometimes I put them somewhere else, depending upon what I'm thinking about at the time.

In fact the other week I couldn't find them. I was searching for them around our home and my wife found them in a shoe. What where my car keys doing in a shoe? Very good question. Well it’s easy to explain, and no I don’t have dementia.

One day I was working in our garden. While I left the main part of the house via the garage to the garden I changed from my house shoes into some wellington boots. I took my car keys with me just in case I needed to move my car. As I didn’t have any pockets in my clothes to store the keys, I placed them inside one of my house shoes for safe keeping.

Hours later, I returned to the garage, removed the boots but didn’t put on the house shoes because I was going to shower after gardening activities. I simply carried my house shoes and put them back into the wardrobe, with the keys still in them, which I had completely forgotten about. Here they remained until my wife found them 4 days later after days of frantic searching.

I'm constantly not remembering the names of people that I don't see that often. I remember their faces but their names just escape me, that's why I call a lot of people “MATE”.

I just don't always remember their names. That's normal. It's okay. It's normal for you to forget things. You think about a lot of stuff every day. Some of you live busy, stressful lives. We've got a lot going on in our lives. You are collecting many memories and thoughts all day and your brain, which is  like a big filing cabinet, it gets pretty full and congested some days. Sometimes it just takes you a little bit longer to remember. That’s all normal.

Normal ageing, MCI and dementia.

Unfortunately as we age we do have a natural amount of memory loss. Researchers know about this. Memory loss has long been accepted as a normal part of ageing. Like other parts of the human body that deteriorates over time, the brain loses some function as we age.

However, some individuals experience memory loss which is far greater than expected with ageing, without other signs of dementia. This is called Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and it’s not dementia. MCI is defined as significant memory loss without the loss of other cognitive functions such as Planning/Problem solving, Social skills, Visuospatial and/or Motor skills. Many people with MCI don't progress to dementia, but they are at a higher risk of developing dementia.

Individuals with MCI generally experience more memory problems than would be expected from someone at a similar age. These individuals can still function independently and don’t display other signs of dementia, such as impaired judgement and/or reasoning. Individuals with MCI generally experience difficulty remembering names of people they have recently met and following the flow of conversations. However, they can usually complete all their daily tasks, but may compensate for any memory issues by using memory prompts such a post-it notes and/or calendars.

There is no specific treatment for MCI, however, Dementia Australia recommends Cognitive Training (exercising the mind/memory) as this could reduce the risk of dementia. Also it’s important to maintain a healthy diet, have regular physical exercise, and maintain good general health.

Possible indicators between normal ageing, MCI, and dementia.

There is a demarcation line between normal ageing, MCI and dementia, but it’s a fuzzy line, and how do we know when someone has crossed it? This involves completing a functional assessment by a professional on what is called ‘Activities of Daily Living’ or ADL’s. ADL’s include personal care activities, feeding oneself, driving a car, wearing appropriate clothes for the weather conditions.

It's very important to be able to distinguish between normal ageing, MCI and dementia, and that the "threshold” varies from person to person.

Years ago experts taught me a rule of thumb to assist in distinguishing the difference, specially between MCI and dementia. It's not a clinical tool, but it's a helpful indicator that people in the real world can use to understand the difference between MCI and dementia. I ask family carers this, “Can you leave the person with MCI alone for a weekend or a week while you went on a trip and would they function independently and get by in daily life? " If the answer is “No, I can’t do that,” it’s perhaps comfortable to say that the person they care for has probably crossed the threshold.

That's the difference. It's not that memory loss or forgetting things is the big issue. The greater issue is that has memory loss caused some distress or affecting someone's safety or well-being. That's the bigger question and that's the greater concern.

In summary

So you have a loved one who does forget a few things from time to time, and it's not dramatically affecting their life and their safety and that of others. It could be just part of their natural aging process of losing a little bit of memory. However, if it is affecting their health, their safety, their well-being and that of others, well that’s a lot more serious and that definitely needs to be investigated. So, just because you forget a few things now and again does not mean that you're getting dementia, or you've got dementia. You're human and it’s part of the human condition as we age. You’ve just simply forget stuff like I do and pretty much everyone else does.

Tim England – Dementia Champion

(M.Dem; B.Dem.Care )

Disclosure - Not Clinical Advice: Information in this article is for general informational and educational purposes only and is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by a Medical Practitioner.