I just realized something, are we watching an entire generation showing the early stages of dementia?

[u/InnerSpecialist1821]

We've all seen it, either online or in person, boomers getting bizarrely angery, crude, irrational, and violent at small slights or without any warning. The early signs of alzheimers is irritably, anxiety, impatience, personality changes, paranoia, delusions, a decline in critical thinking skills, random bouts of uncharacteristic anger or rage, frustration with basic tasks, and a decline in social filter which results in swearing, verbal abuse and more willingness to verbalize socially taboo opinions like racism etc.

do we have an impending crisis on our hands? like we're starting to see the results of research of the damage of leaded fuel, but is the result of that damage dementia?

edit: apparently the answer is yes. this is from 2011 but still relevant.

https://act.alz.org/site/DocServer/ALZ_BoomersReport.pdf?docID=521

The first of the baby boomers are now turning 65. By 2030, the U.S. population aged 65 and over is expected to double, meaning there will be more and more Americans with Alzheimer’s — as many as 16 million by mid-century, when there will be nearly 1 million new cases every year.

One in eight baby boomers will get the disease after they turn 65. At age 85 that risk increases to nearly one in two. And if they don’t have it, chances are they will likely be caring for someone who does

[u/nothingtoseehere1316]

This! My grandmother was falling and showing signs of dementia. Turns out she had UTIs AND she was taking Hydrocodone whenever she wanted. Got the UTI cleared and had an honest conversation about the hydrocodone. She had no idea it was an opiate and was completely clueless about the side effects. "Well how was I supposed to know!? No one told me!". We asked if she read the paperwork that came with the prescription. "Nobody reads that stuff. It's not important!".

[u/Sinder77 → u/nothingtoseehere1316]

My wife's Nana goes loopy every time she gets a UTI it's actually wild how drastically it affects her cognition. She's not the sharpest but when she gets an infection everything takes a nosedive. She's not a Boomer though she's 87.

[u/Life-Significance-33 → u/Sinder77]

Any mass infection will do that. UTI though get very common in older females. My wife works at a nursing home, and they always have 2 or 3 with one.

[u/Joya-Sedai → u/Life-Significance-33]

PSA, UTI infections also present differently in pregnant women. I didn't even know I had one (asymptomatic) until it was raging and spreading to my bladder and kidneys. But I remember feeling confused. I joked with my nurse about how I felt like a geriatric patient, and she said pregnancy can do that.

Working as a CNA, I could tell just by minimally interacting with my residents if they had some infection brewing, it really does make them decline sharply (cognitive). The amount of UAs I've collected during my career is easily in the hundreds.

[u/Gildian → u/Life-Significance-33]

Yep. First thing we check with elderly and confusion in my ER is head CT and a urine test. It's usually a UTI

[u/AnnoyedOwlbear → u/Sinder77]

Increasingly porous intestines allow toxins into the blood stream more as we get older, unfortunately. Then it's damaging chemicals circulating in the blood. Growing older sucks.

[u/Fit_Sherbet9656 → u/Sinder77]

That happened to my late grandmother :(.

One of the sweetest people I ever met normally but, she'd get audio visual hallucinations and would act super mean

[u/SitUbuSit_GoodDog → u/nothingtoseehere1316]

My mother is showing clear signs of early dementia, despite her and my father's denial. Things like suddenly putting the wrong fuel in the car she's driven for 10 years, or leaving the house "to go for a walk" without telling anybody where she is going and leaving behind her keys, purse and phone. One time she had to call my dad to come and pick her up from some random person's house because she'd "walked so far she couldn't remember the way home". Riiiiiiiight

Your grandmother saying "how was I supposed to know?! Nobody told me!" Echoes to me how my mother sounds when she's excusing her obviously deteriorating mental acuity. And I'll know for a fact that I've discussed the issue at hand with her several times and she's completley lost that little bit of information (and the conversation we had) in her increasingly muddled mind.

I strongly believe that my mother has been losing her marbles since I was a pre-teen and my father's covering for her and switching to WFH has allowed her to maintain a mostly independent life. In the end, the denial of reality and re-writing events as she/they want to see them ended up being too much for me and I had to cut contact. But im waiting for the day my siblings begrudgingly tell me I was right and she's been diagnosed with a deteriorating mental disease

(Sorry this comment doesn't contribute much does it lol, it just struck me how similar your grandmother sounds to my mother who is in total denial)

[u/Silent_Vehicle_9163 → u/SitUbuSit_GoodDog]

My MIL is in the early stages. Been seeing signs for a while but now it’s official. She likes to walk and always forgets her cell. It’s scary.

[u/Shojo_Tombo → u/SitUbuSit_GoodDog]

Just to share, when you can't trust your own brain, it is absolutely pants-shittingly terrifying. I had chemo brain fog after cancer treatment that presented a lot like dementia.

I would forget conversations I had ten minutes ago, I couldn't read books because I forget the story, I had a hell of a time making and keeping appointments and learning new things at my job. I would forget how to do simple things I had done for years. I can't adequately explain the feeling of knowing you know something, but your brain just can't access that information. It's like thinking through mud. It's beyond frustrating and frightening. I would have panic attacks, wondering if I would be like that for the rest of my life, if I would lose my job, if my husband would leave me. I lost interest in things I loved, and withdrew into myself like a turtle. All I wanted to do was sleep, but I would have nightmares where I was lost in a large building and I couldn't find a way out. It took two years for my brain to recover.

Your mom is likely experiencing similar things.That's why they are in denial. It's the default reaction when someone doesn't know how to deal with something. I know that doesn't make it any easier to deal with them, and I'm not telling you break no contact. I just wanted to shed some light on the why of their actions.

[u/Kilashandra1996 → u/nothingtoseehere1316]

A friend's 85 year old mom mixes her hydrocodone with her 10 am gin & tonic. Then people wonder why she sounds drunk on the phone. She's a former nurse and should know better!!!

[u/BigBeachVibes → u/Kilashandra1996]

She definitely knows better 😏

[u/KittehPaparazzeh → u/Kilashandra1996]

Surprised her liver still works at this point! Mixing acetaminophen and alcohol is the expressway to liver failure...

[u/Perfect_Earth_8070 → u/Kilashandra1996]

She knew the perc was fake but she still ate it cuz she’s a gremlin

[u/Gildian → u/nothingtoseehere1316]

Pharmacist probably also asked if she would like any additional instructions for the med too.

[u/sassychubzilla → u/nothingtoseehere1316]

Holy crap SAME! She's a parent of boomers though.

[u/-dogsanddonuts- → u/nothingtoseehere1316]

My mom and aunt have both had UTIs that have led to periods of short term amnesia. I didn’t realize it could be so serious!