The drama of being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at 41: “A fog comes over your brain”
An Australian man diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s is sharing his experiences of the disease with thousands of online followers.
A 41-year-old man is opening up to thousands of YouTube viewers about his experience of being diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
“You’re in a haze, essentially”
“It’s sometimes hard to think straight,” explains Fraser, a teacher and researcher from Australia, on his YouTube channel ‘I (don’t) have dementia’, which has accrued nearly 11,000 subscribers.
“It just feels like a fog comes over your brain and you can’t really focus on things very well. You’re in a haze, essentially.”
Fraser, who says he received his Alzheimer’s diagnosis around two years ago, adds that the disease causes him to momentarily forget how to complete tasks he has done “a thousand times”.
“I was in the shower at my partner’s house and I just forgot how to turn the shower off,” he recalled in one video posted in January. Entitled “My symptoms”, the video has been watched some 126,000 times.
What is Alzheimer’s disease?
The U.S. Alzheimer’s Association defines Alzheimer’s disease as a form of dementia that “affects memory, thinking and behavior”.
It is a neurological disorder that gets progressively worse, the Alzheimer’s Association explains: from causing mild memory loss in its early stages, to leaving sufferers unable to hold a conversation or respond to their surroundings in its latter stages.
“Symptoms eventually grow severe enough to interfere with daily tasks,” the body says.
Per the Alzheimer’s Association, people live for four to eight years on average after diagnosis, “but can live as long as 20 years, depending on other factors”.
Alzheimer’s is most common in senior citizens. According to the Mayo Clinic, about one in nine people over 65 has the disease in the U.S.
Early-onset Alzheimer’s, which is defined as a diagnosis of the disease before the age of 65, affects just 110 out of 100,000 Americans between the ages of 30 and 64, the Mayo Clinic says.
“I started freaking out”
Looking back on the early signs that he had developed Alzheimer’s, Fraser recalls having some “pretty big memory flaws”. These manifested themselves, for example, in a “concerning” film-viewing experience.
“I was sitting down to watch a movie once,” Fraser explained on his YouTube channel, “and my partner’s gone, ‘Yeah, we watched that like a month ago.’
“I watched the whole movie [for a second time] and the ending was still a complete surprise. I had no memory of watching it whatsoever. And I didn’t watch many movies, either, at the time. So it was a bit concerning, that was.”
He continued: “At some point, I started having issues with my cognition more generally. I was having issues with just thinking. Being able to think deeply. I find that I have more surface-level thinking, more shallow thinking.”
A father to teenage children, Fraser also told his YouTube viewers: “I started having issues with remembering what’s going on with other people’s lives.
“I remember once, this is early on, my daughter had told me numerous times throughout the day that she was going to the movies that night and would be quite late, with a friend.
“And it came to night time and I started freaking out, thinking, ‘Where’s my daughter?’”
Get your game on! Whether you’re into NFL touchdowns, NBA buzzer-beaters, world-class soccer goals, or MLB home runs, our app has it all.
Dive into live coverage, expert insights, breaking news, exclusive videos, and more – plus, stay updated on the latest in current affairs and entertainment. Download now for all-access coverage, right at your fingertips – anytime, anywhere.
Complete your personal details to comment
Your opinion will be published with first and last names