2. Compulsive and ritualistic behaviors
This is the classic symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), but sometimes it can appear during the onset of dementia. Because of this overreaching symptom, dementia can be harder to diagnose.
The thing that differentiates these two disorders is that OCD usually appears during early adulthood, while dementia generally affects people over 65. Also, the latter has many other symptoms that can develop along with the compulsive behaviors.
But what are compulsive and ritualistic behaviors? If your spouse starts to do some things a certain way and can’t get over it if they can’t do them how they wish, this is a clear sign of compulsive behavior. For example, maybe they are checking to see if they closed the door exactly five times, or they want to keep everything in a specific order.
In cases of dementia, these behaviors can appear because people might get anxious and don’t know what is happening to them. Maybe they realize that they suddenly always forget to lock the door, and now they are checking it obsessively. Or they don’t know what time of day it is, and they now have a fixation on knowing what time it is.
Thank you for your post on Dementia. My wife and I are in our eighties and we are still travaling by car to vacations here in the states. We have travaled to South America and Europe in group plans. So far I beleive we haven’t had problems but I am interested in staying informed of Dementia.
I’ve been seeing a lot of these signs in my husband for the last 5 years or more, but it’s gotten worse in the last 2 years!
He’s now 70 years old & we’ve been married for over 45 years!