Dementia means "deprived of mind". It basically is a serious loss of the ability to be cognitive and to process thoughts in a sequential manner. This can be a result of global brain injury or a progressive one, which might in turn result in a long term decline due to diseases in a body. Dementia is primarily found in people who are elderly but it can occur to a person in any stage of adulthood as well. It is also an illness that is non-specific. In this syndrome, the areas that could be affected in the cognition category are memory, language, problem solving and attention. Here are some of the most typical warning signs.

Sign #1: What Time of Day is it Anyway?

In the later stages of this syndrome, a person can get disoriented in time; for example he may not know what the time is or what day of the week it is. It can also mean disorientation with regards to location; for example a person might forget where they currently are. Lastly, dementia may mean those affected forget people, even friends and family that they may have known for years. Dementia can often be treated to a particular degree, unfortunately most effects of it are generally is due to causes that cannot be cured.

Sign #2: What Was I Saying?

Some of the symptoms are easy to identify. One of which is where the affected cannot find the right word in a conversation which results in halted speeches. This also happens due to incomplete thoughts. Of course, those not suffering from dementia may also have this problem from time to time, but when multiple symptoms are found together, that is when one should check for dementia.

Sign #3: Where Am I?

Another common symptom can also be the tendency of getting confused or getting lost in familiar places. This can be a key indicator that the person is suffering from dementia. This symptom can be very dangerous, especially if the person has not yet discovered that they have dementia and still does common activities like driving. It would be best for the person who is suffering from dementia, not to drive as he is putting to risk not only his life but also lives of people who are on the roads.

Dementia can often be confused with delirium, which has the same symptoms but over a shorter period of time. Thus, even if someone shows some of the above symptoms, one must get them checked by a doctor to make sure that they are not misdiagnosed. Should someone display some of the dementia warning signs spoken about in this article: slowness of thinking, disorientation or loss of cognitive ability, make sure you take them to a doctor and get them checked out.