Thinking and reasoning difficulties
A person with Alzheimer’s disease may also develop problems with their thinking and reasoning abilities at first. These include:
- difficulty concentrating, such as regularly being unable to follow a conversation, and needing silence and complete focus to understand what someone is saying
- difficulty planning or organising – for example, struggling to do the steps of an everyday task in the right order (such as cooking a meal)
- getting confused about what time of day it is, or where they are.
The person may also think they are living at a different time in their lives. For example, thinking they went on holiday to somewhere recently when they actually went there several years ago.
Language problems
Language and communication difficulties are common in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. They tend to involve difficulties finding the right words and not being able to concentrate on what’s being said. As a result, a person with Alzheimer's may:
- use more general words like ‘thing’ or ‘stuff’, or say ‘her’ or ‘him’ when they would previously have known a person’s name
- pause while they try to think of the word they want to use, particularly when it’s a word they wouldn’t use very often.
It can feel like the word is on the ‘tip of their tongue’ but then it doesn’t come to them. This can also happen with names of people or places.
Changes in mood
A person in the earlier stages of Alzheimer’s disease may become anxious, more easily annoyed, sad or frightened. Many people lose interest in talking to others, or in the activities and hobbies they used to enjoy.
They become more withdrawn over time. It’s often hard to say if these changes in mood are caused by the disease itself or the frustrations of struggling with everyday tasks because of their symptoms.
The emotions caused by living with dementia can be challenging for both the person with dementia and those close to them. Anyone finding things difficult should ask for support from a GP or other professional.
Changes to how things are seen and heard
Although less common in the early stages, some people with Alzheimer’s struggle to judge distances and see the outline of objects.
This can make using stairs or parking a car much harder, for example. They may also find certain noises uncomfortable or upsetting, such as loud music or lots of people in a room talking at the same time.
For more information, see How can dementia change a person’s perception?
