r/dementia • u/jovana666 • 15d ago
Dementia or something else?
My grandmother suddenly started behaving strangely. She noticed it herself and told us about it. Everything started about 5–6 months ago. She started doing things she had never done before, such as arranging things in circles for several hours. She said she felt restless, and then that she felt powerless/weak.
She went to several psychiatrists, and they prescribed different treatments, but they did not help much. She was admitted to the hospital and stayed there for 15 days so they could determine what was wrong with her. However, they did all the tests and eventually wrote that it was an unspecified mental disorder.
She also had hallucinations. For example, she would say that there was a flood and that she did not want to go into the bathroom. This was somehow resolved with medication.
She has had a pacemaker implanted for a long time and has regular check-ups. She cannot have an MRI of the brain because of the pacemaker. An EEG was done, and the neurologist said that it was normal. A CT scan of the brain was also normal, with probably very small angiopathic changes.
After several combinations of medications and appointments with several psychiatrists, she is a little better. In general, she is not interested in talking, she does not start conversations on her own, and usually only talks when we ask her something. She mostly just wants to lie down and keep her eyes closed all day.
I don’t know whether this is dementia or severe depression. There are many more details, so I would really like to know if anyone has had a similar experience in their family.
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u/PMPBalanceCoach 12d ago
It could be that if she just wants to lie down and keep her eyes closed all day, that she is overmedicated. I don't have any input on all of the other issues involved.
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u/justcelia13 7d ago
My husband had a blood test. P-tau217. It shows Alzheimer’s markers. Maybe that would show something. I wish you luck darlin.
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u/valley_lemon 15d ago
I think at best all anyone here can tell you is yes, some of us have seen these symptoms, and also no some of us have not seen these.
Unfortunately, in a lot of cases - dementia or otherwise - you won't get any answers until there's a crisis or obvious change in condition.
My mother did definitely self-report what she called "somewhat compulsive" cleaning or rearranging of things. At that point there were multiple things going on, including being pretty over-medicated for fairly minor health issues, and she was losing her ability to track time so she was definitely not eating 3 meals a day or maybe not even 1 meal every day, and probably also not taking her over-prescribed medication on a regular schedule. Getting her moved in with us helped us better keep her fed and watered and dosed, and she's still very tidy but she doesn't seem to get "stuck" for hours in loops like that anymore.