My mum is 71 - so I don't know if that even counts as elderly, but I am hoping to hear from anyone who has seen these symptoms in a parent..
She lives alone after a divorce from my dad 30+ years ago.
I have noticed a marked change in her in the last 3 years.
She has always been introverted but was always interested in people/new places, and quite adventurous. It feels like in the last few years she has withdrawn from the world into herself.
She cannot contribute to a social group conversation, she either doesn't speak or says some almost nonsensical thing or something irrelevant.
She seems slightly (for want of a better phrase) 'out of it', detached from her surroundings. She will chat to me and to my kids, and close family/friends on a one to one basis but I don't feel like I get much from these exchanges, it's hard to explain but I used to be close to her and now I feel like she's somewhere else.
She seems to have lost the ability to converse and make small talk - she comes across as rude because she doesn't know how to chat anymore. Another change is her table manners have got quite bad - eating with her mouth open, almost like a co-ordination problem.
At a family event this weekend both her brother and sister said they were concerned about her too, commenting on her being detached, sitting on her own, not joining conversations and not seeming interested in the world around her. She also got too drunk too early which was frankly a bit embarrassing.
It feels like she has physically aged in the past few years, her speech seems slightly different (croakier voice), and her walking is slow and a bit shuffly. She has an arthritic foot which doesn't help but I feel her whole demeanour is that of someone much older. She has had a couple of trips/falls in the last few years as well. I think this has stopped her doing as much/going out and about as she has admitted to me she feels more anxious about falling.
I don't know if this sounds like dementia/Alzheimers -she is not forgetting names or words or losing things. It seems like she is almost slightly drunk, if that makes sense!
I have brought my concerns up with her - I said I'd noticed she'd lost her joie de vivre, she said she thought it was being more cautious and also being alone a lot. I asked if she felt depressed, she said no.
She is not good at talking about how she feels, or admitting anything is wrong so I am not sure how to approach this. The other complication is that she doesn't live in the UK, she lives in Europe and the healthcare system there is not one I'm familiar with.
Sorry for the long post but I don't know quite what to make of this or what my next steps should be. I feel like I've gradually lost my mum in the past few years.