Over the past 2 years my siblings and I have watched our mother lose some of her memory, attention span and start to repeat herself. She use to be such a smart intellectual person to where I believed she belonged on Jeopardy lol. To date, none of us can hold a conversatiin with her. Within a few seconds my mother will either change topics or stare off into the sky like nothing is being said. She tends to repeat the same topics over n over. We have taken her to doctor who says: " well she knows her birthday, today's date, her name, she is fine, just aging"..... I SERIOUSLY doubt. She has this blank look on her face and it takes a few minutes to snap her out of it. She hardly sleeps, stopped bathing, wears same clothes and only cares about trying to drink alcohol. We all are so worried about her but have no idea how to help. We have been told so long as she is mentally capable of answering certain questions and can walk we cant force her to a psychologist or dr for eval. I have read some similar stories here but nothing that can help me figure what is wrong with my mommy.
Also, she's 70. 70 is nothing.
Your mother should have a workup by a Neurologist or a Neuropsychiatrist. Be sure it is one that has an interest in dementia disorders (not just epilepsy, MS, etc.). As BarbBrooklyn mentioned, a teaching hospital or regional medical center will often have a group that is focused in this area. There are various other diagnoses that this could other than dementia, so the Neurologist will do testing to rule these out (and treat them if they are present). There are medications available that will help her if she has dementia, so it's important to get a good diagnosis.
Blessings,
Jamie
Another thing is depression, especially if your Mom has no real need to get up in the morning. Like no where to go, so why bother taking a shower or changing clothes, no one is going to see her.
Is there an adult day care center or senior center nearby? If so, take her there. She really needs to be around people of her own age group. Imagine if you were only around people 20-30 years younger then you are, you cannot relate to the music, the actors, the TV shows, older movies, etc.
You mentioned that your Mom drinks alcohol, I am surprised that doesn't make her sleepy.
No, you can't force your mother to have an evaluation. But I would think that her doctor would be curious about finding out if there is a reversible cause of the episodes, perhaps seizures. Is your mom interested in finding what's changed, or is she passive about pursuing this?