TLDR: This list does not automatically mean someone has dementia—other causes may include drugs, stress, mental illness, or other medical conditions. Seek medical help before jumping to conclusions.

1. Apathy: nothing is interesting.
2. Affective dysregulation: sad, anxious, crabby.
3. Lack of impulse control: frustrated, angry, irrationally stubborn, obsessive.
4. Social inappropriateness: shockingly uninhibited or rude in words, deeds.
5. Abnormal perceptions or thoughts: suspicious, hearing or seeing things that aren’t there.

I wish I’d had this article 10 years ago. 20/20 hindsight, my partner in her early 50s went through years of prodromal (beginning signs of) Alzheimer’s before receiving a diagnosis at age 61. The list is scary-accurate.