One woman became convinced her spouse was being unfaithful, particularly because of his behavior changes, but realized he was suffering from an early form of dementia.
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Emma Ruscoe, 55, began thinking about her partner, 58-year-old Simon, in 2015, reports the New York Post.
“Simon didn’t want to go out with friends anymore, he didn’t want to go out and socialize anymore. “He became very reserved and I could tell he was becoming more and more withdrawn that I thought he was having an affair,” she says.
Then his driving style changed. Simon started turning in the wrong places and taking the wrong paths.
Everything broke on a family trip in August 2016. Emma, who was also traveling with her two children, Alex and Olivier, noticed that her partner forgot a lot of things and was stubborn about everyone, completely unusual behavior.
At home, Simon consulted a doctor in a special clinic.
The couple went on a string of dates for years and even claimed to have received a letter that specifically stated that Simon did not have dementia.
Five years after his wife first became concerned, Simon was finally diagnosed with dementia praecox in 2020.
“When he got the diagnosis, I was relieved,” Emma said. “I knew something was wrong and I had fought for so long that no one believed there was anything wrong with him. I felt a great sense of relief, from my point of view I knew something was wrong,” Emma added in a New York Post article.
“When I got the diagnosis, I knew what I was dealing with,” she said.
The term dementia is used to describe a group of symptoms that affect memory, thinking and social skills and can be caused by various diseases.
Although Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly, it is not the only one.
Symptoms vary depending on the affected area of the brain and affect people differently.
The risk of dementia increases with age, particularly after age 65, but can also occur in younger, apparently healthy adults.
“We’ve been together for 31 years. It’s heartbreaking to see the person I grew up with disappear. On bad days I feel like my heart breaks, but on good days I’m lucky he’s still here.
“He’s my soulmate, the love of my life, and he always will be,” she said.