Early symptoms of dementia??

[roastchestnuts]

I had the strangest experience today. I drove into town to do some Christmas shopping...went into a shop and bought a couple of things. Went into the next shop and as i was walking around I totally forgot where I was and kept thinking how did I get here? I couldn't remember entering the shop. I also couldn't remember if I had come in the car. I panicked and put down the stuff and walked outside...then i saw a coffee shop which I have not been to in that area and I remembered where I was. I felt a bit light headed for a while after that.
I have been / am under a lot of stress and my short term memory is pretty bad. Im 40 but feel about 60! I worry a lot and think about my stuff most of the time but this experience was just somewhat different. I feel really scared and alone after that.

It could very well be simply stress-related. But if you feel you might have early dementia, your GP can test you and find out for sure.

How are you sleeping?
15 years ago when my daughter was just one year old she went through a series of non-specific viral infections waking up crying in the night with high temperatures results of which was for several weeks I was just getting 2 or 3 hours of broken sleep a night. The result was that my short term memory absolutely went to shot and like yourself I began to panic about early onset dementia. For example I drove into town parked in the multi-storey went and did my shopping and I was sitting on the train on the way home trying to think of what it was I forgotten. It was only when I go home and saw the car wasn't on the drive that I remembered that what I had done.

This all went away when I got into a regular sleep pattern again.

other things can cause this like vit b12 deficiency. i have similar things when under stress too. chat to your GP. it's more common than you think.

Might be worth having a blood glucose test too, especially if you have a family history of diabetes/ are overweight.

I was like this with undiagnosed thyroid problem
Memory and other cognitive stuff such as concentration .