Delusions(11)

Nanpr

Hi there, I’m new to this forum. My mom does not have a diagnosis as of yet, but we are seeing personality, mood and behaviour changes to name a few.Wondering if anyone has experience with those they care for having delusions. My mom has had a repeated delusion of smelling cigarette smoke. In her previous home and now the condo she is currently living in.. She claims she can tell when the people are smoking and it’ll be at random times throughout the night. She taped up her smoke detector in her last home. Another delusion that she had in her last home was about a 10 year old child. She was living on the main floor of a condo and there were 2 children living upstairs aged 2 and 5, which could be noisy at times. However she was convinced that they were hiding a 10 year old boy. She even called child services and I had to call to tell them it was all made up. We have been dealing with these symptoms for almost a year. We live in Canada, she saw a psychiatrist in November who did the MOCA test on her and she scored 18/30. Im not a dr, but don’t think this is a very good score especially with all the other things we’re noticing. The dr said she wouldn’t diagnose my mom with dementia at that time. Fast forward 4 months and we are just going from crisis to crisis it seems. Anyone with similar experiences? I’m finding it very difficult to cope with these changes!

harshedbuzz

Nanpr-

I'm not a doctor either, but a MOCA score 25 or under indicates cognitive impairment. MOCA is more of a screening tool for who should be evaluated further. It sounds like your mom should have a workup for dementia. In the U.S., this is done by a neurologist ideally at a memory clinic which can bring in other services like social work.

What you are describing sounds more like hallucinations. A delusion is believing something that isn't true; a hallucination is when you hear, see or smell something that isn't. Hallucinations aren't necessarily negative for the person having them; my dad enjoyed some of his. BUt it sounds like your mom's are upsetting to her.

Dad also had the children making a racket upstairs hallucination. He'd always been a bit of a control freak, so naturally his "kids" carried on well past their bedtimes. Dad kind of time traveled and we never did figure out which kids my dad was talking about- my sister and I as kids?, my sister's kids who lived with him while she was sick and dying?, random kids? Initially, my mom made the rookie mistake of trying to reason with him reminding him that his kid was 60 or that they live in a 55+ community with no kids allowed. Over time she found it easier to leave the room for a minute or so, return and report that she'd told the kids to go to sleep. That satisfied him.

There are medications which can reduce hallucinations if they are troubling or lead to dangerous behavior.

Good luck.

Nanpr

Thanks for sharing your story. Yes, I feel that my mom definitely needs an evaluation by a proper professional. She has an appointment with a geriatric psychiatrist, who will hopefully do further testing. My mom may shut us out of the appointment and if she does we will write a letter to let the dr know what’s happening behind the scenes. We are hoping she will accept medication, but worry she will resist (as she has from her PCP). Not really sure what we do if this is the case? My mom has been an independent woman for most of her life, as she was widowed early. This is now working against us, I feel! One day at a time!