[Mountain Mike]

I'm posting this for my mother who is a technophobe. She thinks she may be delusional. This started about two months ago (July 2018). I had my passport out to show as ID for a gameshow I was going on to. She saw the passport and she thought I was using it to leave the country and she panicked and started crying. Then later in the day she had no memory of it.

I once came home late from work, and she thought the police had been at the door to tell her I had been killed in an auto accident. I came home to find her sobbing and she told me she thought I was dead. She is very scared and fears spending the rest of her days in a mental hospital.

[Skeezyks]

My best wishes to your mother. I don't know how old she is, of course. Since I'm an older person, whenever I read posts of this kind, what always pops into my mind is Alzheimer's or another form of dementia (perhaps early-onset?), particularly if the person doesn't have a history of mental illness. I have characteristics that one often reads predispose a person to dementia. But, so far at least, I seem to coping.

I've thought about seeing if I could get assessed for senior dementia. But I haven't done it & probably won't. Perhaps you could help your mom to make some testing arrangements if that seems to be appropriate. Here's a link to an article, from PsychCentral's archives, that provides some general information on the subject of dementia along with a link to the Alzheimer's Association website:

Anxiety and Dementia | Anxiety and OCD Exposed

[Mountain Mike]

She is 74.

[Skeezyks]

Originally Posted by Mountain Mike

She is 74.

Yup... I'm 70. So she & I aren't that far apart age-wise. I recall the experince my wife & I had with her mother. She was always a strong, independent single older woman. But for some reason (we don't know why & none of the doctors who saw her could tell us) she suddenly & unexpectedly went into what looked (from the outside) like a deep depression. And from there she gradually (& quite rapidly) lost all of both her short & long-term memory. Toward the end she didn't even recognise us & didn't remember we had been to visit her as soon as we left.

[Buffy01]

Originally Posted by Mountain Mike

I'm posting this for my mother who is a technophobe. She thinks she may be delusional. This started about two months ago (July 2018). I had my passport out to show as ID for a gameshow I was going on to. She saw the passport and she thought I was using it to leave the country and she panicked and started crying. Then later in the day she had no memory of it.

I once came home late from work, and she thought the police had been at the door to tell her I had been killed in an auto accident. I came home to find her sobbing and she told me she thought I was dead. She is very scared and fears spending the rest of her days in a mental hospital.

I'm sorry to hear that!

[Buffy01]

Originally Posted by Skeezyks

My best wishes to your mother. I don't know how old she is, of course. Since I'm an older person, whenever I read posts of this kind, what always pops into my mind is Alzheimer's or another form of dementia (perhaps early-onset?), particularly if the person doesn't have a history of mental illness. I have characteristics that one often reads predispose a person to dementia. But, so far at least, I seem to coping.

I've thought about seeing if I could get assessed for senior dementia. But I haven't done it & probably won't. Perhaps you could help your mom to make some testing arrangements if that seems to be appropriate. Here's a link to an article, from PsychCentral's archives, that provides some general information on the subject of dementia along with a link to the Alzheimer's Association website:

Anxiety and Dementia | Anxiety and OCD Exposed

Great advice!