[cardguy]

Serious question.

If your dad has always being nutty and a pain. How can you tell if he is sliding into dementia?

My Dad could start a fight in an empty telephone box. But he seems to be getting worse.

So - I just wondered if other people have ever come across something like this with friends/family members?

To put it in simple terms. If you know somebody who has always being pretty mad - how do you tell when they actually are becoming nutty because of some underlying mental degradation (to do with old age for example).

My Grandma could be difficult. But as she got into extreme old age - she became a new person and incredibly friendly and chilled out. So - it can go both ways...

Anyway - in case you think I am being light-hearted here. I am genuinely curious as to how you deal with such cases since it is a bit a paradox. If you always suspected somebody might be mad - how do you tell when they really do go mad?

Would be curious to hear any stories people have.

[Mikev75]

Look for signs such as forgetting what common objects are used for (i.e not just losing his car keys, which normal people do, but not knowing what to do with them.) Also, he might lose sense of time, like thinking he's back in his teenage years. Another thing would be getting lost on routes which were previously very familiar to him. Also, using the completely wrong word for things.

[bacon]

My one grandma had bad dementia to the extent she did not recognize her son, my father. Dementia runs on my fathers side. His brother 70 ish has bad dementia and lives in a nursing home. He is still Alpha tells my mother to shut up when she visits because she talks to much and he will take the tv remote from the community room if its a show he does not like. He flirts with any woman his junior that he is around. That said he knows he is losing it. He tells his relatives he is going to die and gives away anything he has if you are around him.

This has been a wake up call for my family. I am in the process of creating a living will(I am late 20s) so that in case some shit happens I have made plans to deal with it. Basically for me I have laid out to my close friends and brothers that if I am in a state of pain to take me out via suicide. But just losing my mind and filling my day with TV etc would not be worth having me eliminated so I am ok with dying with dementia right now. However if my mind truely slips I might reevaluate things and reach a different conclusion about living that way.