Home › Understand › The 10 warning signs
You have noticed something. You are not sure whether it is serious or just getting older. This page is for that moment. It is not a test and it cannot tell you what is wrong — but it can tell you what is worth taking to a doctor.
Everyone forgets things. Names slip. You walk into a room and lose the reason. That is ordinary.
The difference worth paying attention to is change — when someone is not managing something they used to manage fine, and it is getting worse rather than staying the same.
The ten signs below are the ones the Alzheimer's Association uses. Each one is paired with the ordinary version of the same thing, because the contrast is usually more useful than the sign on its own.
Several causes of memory trouble are treatable and reversible. Thyroid problems, vitamin B12 deficiency, depression, infections, sleep apnoea, and side effects of ordinary medicines can all look like early dementia.
This is the strongest reason to get it checked rather than wait and watch. The answer may be something fixable. And if it is not, everything else — treatment, planning, help — works better the earlier it starts.
Forgetting information learned recently. Asking the same question over and over. Needing notes, reminders or family members for things they used to keep in their head without effort.
Ordinary ageing: sometimes forgetting a name or an appointment, and remembering it later.
Struggling to follow a recipe they have cooked for thirty years. Losing track of the monthly bills. Finding it much harder to concentrate, and taking far longer over familiar tasks.
Ordinary ageing: making the occasional mistake with the bills or the chequebook.
Getting lost driving somewhere they have driven for years. Trouble with the rules of a favourite game. Difficulty with the ordinary steps of a job they have done a thousand times.
Ordinary ageing: occasionally needing help with the microwave settings or recording a TV programme.
Losing track of dates, seasons, the passage of time. Forgetting where they are or how they got there. Trouble understanding something unless it is happening right now.
Ordinary ageing: getting confused about what day it is, then working it out.
Difficulty reading, judging distance, or telling colours apart. This can show up first as a problem with driving, or with steps and kerbs.
Ordinary ageing: vision changes caused by cataracts or another eye condition — which is why an eye test is worth doing too.
Stopping in the middle of a sentence with no idea how to continue. Repeating themselves. Struggling to find the right word, or calling things by the wrong name — "that hand clock" for a watch.
Ordinary ageing: sometimes having trouble finding the right word.
The keys in the freezer. The remote control in the bathroom. The important part is the second half: being unable to go back over their steps to find it. Some people start accusing others of stealing, and this can get worse over time.
Ordinary ageing: misplacing things from time to time and retracing your steps to find them.
Handling money in ways that do not make sense. Giving large sums to telemarketers or scammers. Paying much less attention to washing, dressing or keeping themselves tidy.
Ordinary ageing: making a bad decision or a poor choice once in a while.
Dropping a hobby, a team, a social group they loved. Avoiding company. Often this is because keeping up with a conversation has become hard work, and withdrawing is easier than being caught out.
Ordinary ageing: sometimes feeling tired of work, family or social obligations.
Becoming confused, suspicious, depressed, fearful or anxious. Getting upset easily — at home, at work, with friends, or anywhere outside their usual routine.
Ordinary ageing: developing very specific habits and getting irritable when the routine is disturbed.
The ten signs above follow the list published by the Alzheimer's Association, rewritten in plainer language. The wording is ours; the list is theirs.
Make an appointment if any one of these is true. You do not need several. You do not need to be sure.
Start with their regular doctor. You do not need a specialist referral to begin, and the first appointment is mostly conversation and simple tests.
Sudden confusion is usually not Alzheimer's. It is often an infection, a medication reaction or a stroke — and those need treating now.
This is often the hardest part. A few things that help:
If they will not go at all, you can still call their doctor's office and share what you have seen. They may not be able to tell you anything back, but they can put it on the record.
The thing that matters is change. Forgetting a name and remembering it later is ordinary. The warning sign is no longer managing something that used to be managed without effort, and it getting worse over months rather than staying the same.
Yes. Thyroid problems, vitamin B12 deficiency, depression, infections, sleep apnoea and side effects of ordinary medicines can all look like early dementia, and several are reversible. That is the strongest reason to get it checked rather than wait and watch.
Any one of these is enough: someone is struggling with something they used to do easily and it is getting worse over months; the forgetting is affecting work, money, medicines or driving; other people have noticed it too; or there is a change in character that is out of character for them. Start with their regular doctor — no specialist referral is needed to begin.
Go to an emergency department the same day if confusion comes on over hours or a couple of days rather than months, or if there is a fever, a fall, a head injury or a sudden change after starting a new medicine. Call 911 for weakness or drooping on one side, sudden trouble speaking, or a sudden severe headache. Sudden confusion is usually not Alzheimer's.
No. No web page can. Only a clinical assessment can give a diagnosis, and many other conditions cause the same signs.