Is repetition a sign of early Alzheimer's?
If you've raised the subject with his wife and had no response, I'd be inclined now to leave it alone. She may not be ready to confront it. Just to be there for them is, I believe, the best thing you can do. Eventually, they will both need your support and understanding. All the best...
I would say that such repetition of questions "may" be a sign of Alzheinmer's, but it is difficult to discern the difference between Alzheimer's and less severe age-related dimentia in the early stages. My brother, who is not quite 60, sometimes repeats questions within a short period of time, but I think that his forgetfulness is mild at this point. But my mother died of Alzheimers in 2005 and my father is now in the end stages of Alzheimers, so it may be a sign of things to come later in my brother's life (which worries him).
Sometimes I repeat what I just said. That seems to be something that annoys me.
I am a 43-year old woman who suffered from I guess what would be described as a stroke. It was mild though. At the time, I suffered from Ptosis (droopy eyelid), affecting one eye. The doctors also found I had a bleed in the brain stem, as well as evidence of some older bleeds. Simply as a process of elimination, they finally concluded it must have been brought on by untreated high blood pressure. I was 39 when this happened. I now have my BP under control with meds, and, except for some slight vision issues with that one eye, am very healthy. But, i worry alot because I know that I already do many of these things! But, honestly, many of the times when I repeatedly ask questions, it's because I couldn't clearly hear the response. Not that it's good for me to be losing any hearing, but I'd sure rather that than this option. So, please keep in mind that hearing issues could be causing the repetitive questions.
What scares me even more though, is that I now have difficulty always remembering my youngest nieces and nephews names (I have 18), none-the-less the youngest ones birthdays. Trouble remembering exact addresses and phone numbers we have had over our 20-year marriage (currently at our sixth address...5 states. And, my brain seems to have reached it's capacity limit for phone numbers, passwords, PIN codes, and the such. I'm wondering, since I am recognizing some of this, if there is anything I can do now, before it gets worse...to salvage what I do have, you know?
Hello lovinlife3,
Thank you very much for sharing with the community. There can be many causes of memory loss, not just Alzheimer's disease.
To learn more about normal memory loss, please visit the article Worried About Your Memory? 5 Signs It's Not Serious.
Another article you may find useful is Brain Experts' 6 Best Memory Tricks.
If you still have questions, you can create your very own Ask & Answer page, here.
I hope that helps!
Take care, Emily | Community Manager
