Dememtia vs Normal Aging

During the aging process, we and others begin to challenge whether we are honest with our lives or magically remembering events that never occurred.

The Alzheimer's Association lists the following warning signs for the disease, including advice on how to tell them from normal age-related changes:

• Memory changes that disrupt a persons daily life. Forgetting important dates or events, asking for the same information over and over, and relying more on reminder notes and other memory aids.  WITH NORMAL AGING: most people sometimes forget names or appointments but generally remember them later.
• Challenges in planning or solving simple problems. Changes in the ability to work with numbers, follow a recipe or track bills. WITH NORMAL AGING: occasional mistakes when balancing a checkbook.
• Difficulty completing familiar tasks. Trouble driving somewhere familiar, managing a budget at work or home, remembering rules of a game.  WITH NORMAL AGING: occasionally needing help with settings on a microwave or using a "clicker" or even recording a TV show. 
• Confusion with time or places. Losing track of dates or seasons, forgetting where they are or how they and certain information got there. WITH NORMAL AGING: getting confused about the day of the week or an anniversary date, but figuring it our later.
• Trouble understanding visual images and special relationships. Difficulty reading, judging distance and perhaps determining color. WITH NORMAL AGING: vision changes could be from needing glasses or from having cataracts.
• New problems with words in speaking or writing. Trouble following or joining a conversation with others or repeating themselves. WITH NORMAL AGING: sometimes having trouble finding the right word.
• Misplacing things and losing the ability to retrace steps. Putting things in unusual places, losing things, accusing others of stealing. WITH NORMAL AGING: occasionally misplacing things and retracing steps to find them.
• Decreased or poor judgement. Irresponsible moves with money, less attention to grooming.  WITH NORMAL AGING: making a bad decision once in a while.
• Withdrawal from work or social activities. WITH NORMAL AGING: sometimes feeling weary of work, family and social obligations.
• Changes in mood and personality. Becoming confused, suspicious, depressed, fearful or anxious. WITH NORMAL AGEING: developing specific ways to doing things and becoming irritable when a routine is disrupted.