I'm losing/substituting words - but it's not early onset dementia is it?

[ForgotwhatIcameinherefor]

I took my DF for a test a while back and I would have been ok with his questions: children's names and ages, name animals for a minute, who is the current PM, USA President, a recent news story etc
But for several years now more and more words are dropping from my memory. I want to use a word and just can't remember it. Other times often a wrong word just comes out eg "Get your sandwiches on" instead of shoes. I usually know straight away I said the wrong word and then sometimes take a couple more attempts to correct myself.
Is this common? What's it called?
Thanks and love to anyone who is familiar xxx

I get this ever since I started epilepsy meds. I also forget what I'm saying half way through the sentence.
I just lose words. 😣

Peri & menopause for sure. It's alarming but I'm hoping I get better again once I'm out the other side.

My mum got given a really good analogy for this.......forgetting what to call a fork is not an issue, forgetting what it is for, is!

I'm 51, I've been struggling for over a year with this. I think it's a combination of stress, peri and also low ferritin and vitamin d3.

I've been on HRT for 7 months and I still struggle with memory, words etc. It's definitely not dementia.

yes I am exactly the same after having Covid mid-december!

Lots of things can cause it stress monkey mind hormonal changes. How are you feeling otherwise?

I told my DP yesterday I wanted divorce instead of dinner, hell of a slipup!

My mum always used to have this trouble with names. By the time her grand kids came along she'd go through every name under the sun before she got the right one, including the dog!

Happens before a migraine for me too, sometimes a couple of days before. I mix things around so something like door curtain becomes coor durtain but I also just can't remember words and find myself desparetly trying to describe an object!

I have known lots of people say it happens with perimenopause and forme, migraine or not, I find myself struggling with it a couple of days before my period.

I think everyone does the 'words on the tip of my tongue can't think of it...' thing.

I think saying a completely wrong word THEN realising that isn't right is something else and I it was one of the symptoms I noticed most when my sleep apnea got much much worse and I was suffering extreme sleep deprivation and fatigue (awful eyesight to the point of unable to read, use computer, watch tv..., microsleeping even mid conversation were others!)...

The odd slip up with a similar sounding word, or a word you've just read/heard is one thing but continually doing it with verrrrrrry wrong words or words not related to recent reading/hearing.. mm. I would seek some proper advice.

Stress, vitamin deficiencies and lack of sleep are all pretty common causes but there will be others.. and of course, simply getting older, the signs of which actually seem to start relatively young, is another factor!

Another for peri/menopause. All 8 of us in my book group who range from late 40s to early 60s are all regularly lost for words or substitute something that shouldn't be there.

BTW, look in Classics for the thread on brain farts.

The brain is a marvellous thing, but sometimes it gets a bit scrambled.

I was trying to find the word for towel rail yesterday. Went all round the houses until DH realised what I was trying to say. 🤦🏻‍♀️

I think worth a go trip for bloods, how old are you?
I had this terribly and my thyroid numbers were so off.

I had this during pregnancy. It felt like the words were floating on water just within my grasp, but I knew if I grabbed for them they would float away where I couldn't reach them and I'd have to wait for them to drift back to me in their own time.

Like so many things it's probably nothing but just could be the sign of a health problem. If it's severe, sudden, debilitating or causing you distress it's worth seeking medical advice.

My husband always knows when I’m nearing my breaking point with stress because I lose nouns. It’s like my brain is so filled with other things it starts dumping non critical information.

If you’re concerned see your doctor, but take a look around to semi if it’s something else.

Yep, classic peri / menopause symptom and I'm guessing if you took your DF for a dementia test he's quite elderly and you're probably in the likely age range for menopause? I think everyone does this to a certain extent but mine has definitely got worse in the last couple of years, and also pausing half way through a sentence and then I can't even remember what I was talking about let alone what I was going to say next!

word fuzziness is my normal my entire life.

When I was young I couldn't understand people who couldn't multi-task, have different simultaneous convos with 2 people at same time. I miss those days when I was excellent at multi-tasking.

Big feature of my long covid this one… suddenly I’m no longer good with words :(

I get it when my thyroid medication needs rising.
It was one of the symptoms that prompted me to get tested and was diagnosed with hashimotos thyroiditis

A low carb diet fixes this for me, as well as my other brain fog problems. I also find myself using words that I didn't realise were in my vocabulary.
By low carb I don't mean extreme carb counting keto but no starchy carbs, sweets, chocolate etc. I also get loads of other benefits from it too.

I recently asked if we can order a mitten for dinner. It was chicken ffs. Took few tries.
The door get confused with floor, which is funny when you ask your other half the close the floor.
Fridge became cage few times. Trolley a lorry...
Or general blankness.
He has a good laugh about it.

Was going to say have you had your b12 levels tested also. When mine is low I get very forgetful and can't think of the right word!

I get this too, I just cannot dredge up a word when I need it, and it could be perimenopausal, although I think it’s also down to living alone and mostly wfh. I can go for several days without having an actual conversation beyond pleasantries in a shop. I do talk to the cat but he’s not a great conversationalist.

I also have problems with remembering who characters in books are from one day to the next. However, I’m pretty good at cryptic crosswords and scrabble, so I must have some vocabulary capabilities hidden somewhere.

It started around menopause for me (I'm 64 now) and hasn't really got any better but it also hasn't got any worse!

Most common for me is the 'brain can't be arsed to fetch the word I need so picks the nearest one beginning with the same letter' syndrome - e.g. instrad of saying "Is it time to take the dog out?" my brain might come up with "Is it time to take the dinner out?"

I've been doing some of that 'describe the noun in a phrase because the actual noun itself won't come' thing for about 15 years (on rare occasions) now - that hasn't got any worse, either.

It sounds from the replies like this is common for a range of reasons, but if you have any other neurological symptoms, however seemingly trivial, it’s maybe worth getting it checked out. It’s extremely rare, but for my dad this type of aphasia was a very early sign of a brain tumour.

No reason to panic - hoofbeats are probably horses not zebras - but I don’t think this is widely known and it might just help someone one day to recognise it.