Mild Alzheimer’s Symptoms
- Has difficulty concentrating
- Has sudden lucid moments
- Loses track when giving directions
- Cooks simpler recipes
- Leaves many reminder notes to self but forgets writing them
- Begins to say less in phone conversations
- Gets lost, even on familiar routes
- Reads books with fewer words
- Misuses words (such as calling a toothbrush a stick)
- Able to manage personal care without help
- Spilling something and not cleaning it up
- Forgets to bathe
- Engaging in aggressive behavior (hitting, pushing)
- Following someone around, shadowing
- Seems more self-absorbed, less interested in family than usual
- Rarely has uncharacteristic emotional outbursts (acts angry, aggressive, or upset)
- Loses initiative and interest in many things
- Moodier than normal; stubborn or irritable when challenged or corrected
- Has delusions or unfounded suspicions
- Rummages
- Accuses others of own mistakes
- Cursing
- Losing interest in TV
Moderate Alzheimer’s Symptoms
- Repeating a behavior over and over
- Talks about past and present but doesn’t remember recent events (exception: some emotional memories)
- Can’t reliably remember what happened yesterday
- Needs help choosing and putting food on plate
- Needs help choosing from a menu
- Opens wallet to cashier to “take what you need”
- Hallucinations
- Forgets difference between public and private behavior (disinhibition)
- Doesn’t recognize own home
- Asks, “Where are we?” or “Why are we here?” or “What should I be doing?”
- Strongest memories are of distant past; talks about childhood/early life more than present
- Can’t reliably remember who just visited
- Says, “You never visit me” to someone who was just there yesterday
- Confuses distant memories as being recent
- Needs help choosing what to wear
- Picks at skin
- Has problems finding or using the bathroom
- Able to manage personal care with some help
- Requires constant help to manage personal care
- Sleeps a Lot During the Day
- Obsessively picking at small objects
- Sometimes has uncharacteristic emotional outbursts (acts angry, aggressive, or upset)
- Fixates on an idea and brings it up over and over
- Late afternoon or evening agitation, restlessness, confusion (sundown syndrome)
- Says, “I want to go home” (whether home or not)
- Misinterprets help with hygiene
Severe Alzheimer’s Symptoms
- Difficulty retrieving even distant memories
- Uses Nonsense Speech
- Unable to make choices, even with help
- All memory seems lost; lives in eternal present
- Walks with a Shuffle
- Can’t Walk
- Difficulty Swallowing
- Talks very little
- Often has uncharacteristic emotional outbursts (acts angry, aggressive, or upset)
- Communicates mostly through body language (grimace, frown, smile)
- Sudden, dramatic decline
- Seems to stare right through you
- No Longer Smiles
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