Q: Maybe I'm just getting older. But at work, what used to take me two hours to do now takes four. I've always been sharp and fast on the job, but I'm not performing at my peak.
A: Struggling with familiar tasks and experiencing problems with abstract thinking can be early indications of Alzheimer's disease. The aging brain can compensate for its declining performance for many years: It knows more about the world and its patterns than a younger, swifter brain. But if established work routines don't come as easily as they did, perhaps the benefits of age are being undermined by disease.
For example, if you're failing to detect and recognize patterns on the job -- say, anticipating from experience where production bottlenecks will happen -- it's worth raising the issue with your doctor.
Finding numbers difficult to add up in your head or the route to your next appointment difficult to visualize could be signs of stress and distraction -- things all of us have plenty of at work. But if things you've always done on the job now stump you, that is a problem warranting medical evaluation.
Sometimes, making mistakes doing things that are virtually automatic gives us a sign that something's wrong. When Dad takes a left turn instead of a right to head home from the grocery store, that should not be dismissed as absent-mindedness. Those with early Alzheimer's often become disoriented in the performance of familiar tasks.
The speed at which those difficulties have set in is important to note. The onset of Alzheimer's symptoms is generally gradual and insidious -- making them easy to dismiss as the mental decline that comes with aging.
In the case of a person who has suffered a stroke or fallen into depression, difficulty with routine chores and mental calculations can be relatively sudden.
Q: I misplace things. And when I'm talking, I am sometimes at a loss for the word I need. What's wrong?
A: Putting your glasses in the refrigerator or a pantry cabinet rather than on your bedside table may be a sign of a problem: Misplacing things in inappropriate places is an early sign of Alzheimer's disease.
It is also time to consult a memory specialist when you ask your spouse if she's seen your glasses and you have trouble thinking of the word for them, or if the word that comes out is not the right one. Sometimes, those with early Alzheimer's disease say they will get close, but a tad off the mark, to the word they're looking for -- "that thing for my nose" instead of "glasses." Sometimes they'll just find themselves stumped.
The way in which problems appear can give clues to the cause. Sudden word-retrieval difficulties might be a sign that a stroke is taking place or has occurred. A barking dog and ringing telephone that jangle your concentration while you're looking for those, those ... whatchamacallits might signal that distraction is to blame.