Effective treatments for dementia remain rare, and scientists attribute this in part to the fact that the disease is frequently diagnosed after symptoms appear.
In fact, the first warning signs can appear up to two decades after the disease has damaged parts of the brain.
A TikToker named Jana (Jana-welcome2dementia) has documented her journey with this condition on social media.
In a recent article, Jana revealed how the first warning signs of cognitive difficulties can appear “decades or two decades before someone is diagnosed.”
Jana’s story offers rare insight into early symptoms of dementia
TIKTOK / Jana-welcome2dementia
Her account offers a rare glimpse into the first manifestations of dementia symptoms in young adults.
Jana shared a particularly striking incident that occurred when she was 26, during a work trip.
She had flown to Seattle to receive an award at a ceremony with colleagues. The next morning, before her flight home, Jana and a friend decided to explore the city.
Everything seemed normal when they went out, with Jana remembering eating lunch and feeling perfectly fine.
Moments later, a disturbing episode began to unfold at the airport.
“When we got to the airport, I got out and went to the back of the car, and that’s when I didn’t know where I was, I didn’t know who I was with. I was, I didn’t know why I was there,” Jana recalls.
She remembers being completely disoriented, believing she was in another Salt Lake airport.
Fortunately, her companions were there to explain where she was and what she should do next.
Researchers point out that this finding could be a ‘quirk’ of the study design Pennsylvania
“By the time I got back to everyone, I kind of came back to reality, but I was really shaken,” she recalled.
Jana has lived through this disturbing experience for three decades and shows that cognitive symptoms can appear in young adults, long before they are typically associated with dementia.
“That’s really what I feel in terms of confusion when I’m at sunset,” Jana noted, referring to a state of confusion that occurs in the late afternoon in patients with cognitive decline.
“I was really shaken,” she admitted. “It’s something that has stayed with me for thirty years.”