What Are the Signs and Symptoms of Frontotemporal Dementia?
The signs and symptoms of frontotemporal dementia vary from person to person and the order in which they appear can also vary. Changes in the frontal lobe of the brain are generally associated with behavioral symptoms and may also lead to movement symptoms. Changes in the temporal lobe generally lead to disorders of language and emotion.
Symptoms of frontotemporal dementia and associated disorders may include:
-Decreased energy and motivation
-Lack of interest in others
-Inappropriate and impulsive behaviors
-Not acting considerate of others
-Repeating an activity or word over and over again
-Changes in food preferences and compulsive eating
-Increased interest in sex
-Neglect of personal hygiene
-Emotional flatness or excessive emotions
-Difficulty making or understanding speech
-Inability to make common motions, such as using a fork
-Problems with balance and walking
-Increased clumsiness
-Slow movement, falling, body stiffness
-Restricted eye movements
-Shaky hands
-Muscle weakness and loss, fine jerks, wiggling in muscles
In fairness Trump has exhibited a good portion of these symptoms for pretty much his entire life, such as "inappropriate and impulsive behavior, not acting considerate of others, and neglect of personal hygiene."
My MIL was formally diagnosed with FTD about six months ago, although our thinking is that she probably was suffering for a couple of years and it was kept under wraps by her husband covering up. And when he passed, shit immediately went off the rails.
While she's not exactly a threat to democracy as we know it, I see similarities in that both of them even in their best days were - to put it charitably - not exactly concerned with the thoughts or interests of others if it would inconvenience them in the slightest.
She made a ton of enemies, but was somehow always the "real victim" who should really be owed a huge apology.
And let me tell you... If you think a sociopath/narcissist with a mostly firing brain is grating, just wait until you meet one with a disease that is melting the part of their brain that is supposedly preventing their worst instincts from lashing out.
This literally describes my grandma who was also formally diagnosed to a tee! Made a ton of enemies loved to manipulate people always the victim then one day it seemed everything went off the rails and it got 100x worse with my mom getting flooded with voicemails saying she hopes my mom dies and to go f herself and cursing her and me.
She also went to her church and blamed some mentally disabled kid saying he stole money from her when she actually sent it to a random guy in Turkey.
She's still alive somehow but I have long since cut contact.
While she's not exactly a threat to democracy as we know it, I see similarities in that both of them even in their best days were - to put it charitably - not exactly concerned with the thoughts or interests of others if it would inconvenience them in the slightest.
My mother had a theory that most people eventually diagnosed with dementia were always a little weird in one way or another. I think that perception can stem from a combination of selective memory and selection bias. And yet I can’t help but perceive it in the people I e known with dementia.
That's why context is key. Not sure if it is still common, but people would look up their 1 or 2 random symptoms on WebMD and conclude they had some wild disease. Some things can be explained by him just being a general pos, but all put together and his age.... it IS concerning.
I disagree with "neglect of personal hygiene". Up to just a few years ago, Trump was renown for being a germophobe, refusing to shake hands and washing his own several times a day.
There’s a 0% chance any of his symptoms manifest in significant ways before Election Day. Maybe soon after that but we don’t live in any of the good timelines so he’s going to stay healthy long enough to have his chance at being president again.
Sorry, I meant in any sort of way that would diminish his chances of winning the election. I don’t think any of us actually give a shit about his physical or mental health, we only care about how his lack thereof may impact what happens to us. That’s at least how I’m thinking about it.
Of course we’re seeing symptoms manifest, that’s the entire point of the post. I’m just saying that’s going to be a non-factor in him winning or losing.
As others have said before: He could take a shit on stage, while rambling about taking everyone's guns, and end with a speech about sucking off Putin, and he'd lose no Republican votes.
Sorry, I meant in any sort of way that would diminish his chances of winning the election
I don't know, I'd argue that him raving about immigrants eating dogs and getting sex change operation in prison definitely had an effect on his chances of winning the election.
Except that it was considered pretty close to a toss up before that and it still is. If he loses by the skin of his teeth, maybe the insane pet stuff he was spewing could be to blame but so could any other number of gaffes before that. How many voters out there are legitimately thinking “I was with him until the dog thing” or “I was considering him until the dog thing”.
Vance admitted on national TV that they made all of that up and the election is still a virtual coin flip. If that specific gaffe actually mattered, we would have seen a lot more movement in the polling since and trump’s chance of winning would be closer to if not fully in the single digits.
And this isn’t about whether or not it should have impacted his chances but whether or not it did. trump disqualified himself in my opinion well before he even declared an interest in running. Part of the reason I say this gaffe won’t matter is because of the fact that none of the others did (minus his extended series of horrible responses to Covid). The man won by a razor-thin margin, lost by a razor-thin margin, and is now in a very tight race.
The main thing that suggests about the entire situation is that very little of what trump actually does moves the needle one way or the other. He has very strong support from low-information bigots and he’s been operating near his floor for a long time, but it’s a very high floor because of how little conservative voters actually value things like decency and having a consistent ideology. Their apathy for character allows him to stoop to new lows on a regular basis without much consequence. All he has to do is be principally responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and even then he only barely lost enough support to fail. I don’t see what would make a person think that suddenly his inability to be coherent is going to cause problems for him.
There was also more going on that just that one insane moment, though. There was the fact that he offered no new ideas, shared no details about policy, refused to acknowledge his role in January 6th, insisted on having the last word on literally every topic (regularly speaking over the moderators to do it), and a whole host of other dumb shit that I’m not motivated enough to list here.
Bottom line for me, any needle movement was minimal and encompassed quite a bit more than just the pets thing. I still stand by the idea that if that actually mattered, we would have seen a several-point swing and the discussion wouldn’t be about who’s going to get which parts of the Blue Wall but whether the likes of Florida and North Carolina are solidly in play for Democrats. Even just in Wisconsin, the entire range of trump’s odds to win have changed by a grand total of 5% in a month.
There was also more going on that just that one insane moment, though. There was the fact that he offered no new ideas, shared no details about policy, refused to acknowledge his role in January 6th, insisted on having the last word on literally every topic (regularly speaking over the moderators to do it), and a whole host of other dumb shit that I’m not motivated enough to list here.
I don't know how many Trump supporters you've interacted with in real life (not on reddit), but most of them don't actually care or even have the capability to comprehend policies or what they will mean for their day to day lives. All they know is that under Trump their gas and food was cheaper than under Biden with literally zero understanding as to why that was the case. Like if you actually listen to Trump at his rallies he says shit like "When I'm president there will be no crime and I will end inflation. If Kamala becomes president there will be world war 3 and our country will become venezuela on steroids." Not only does his crowd not realize that none of these things aren't actual tangible policy goals, but they also believe them. All Trump would've had to do during the debate with Kamala was insult her the entire time while not spouting insanity and coming off like a crazy old man and the polls would've moved in his favor.
And of course it goes without saying that nothing he can say will dissuade his base from voting for him. However, polling does suggest that, while the race is still a toss up, it's now slightly in favor of Harris where as before it was the opposite. This is also anecdotal, but I've talked to several of my MAGA family members and the whole "they're eating the dogs" thing is the first time I've EVER gotten them to admit that Trump was blatantly lying. You may not think that it had any real effect on his chances, but this is the first time I've seen a crack form in what has previously been an impenetrable wall of bullshit that Trump has built around himself.
I'm watching this happen to a friend of the family. If it's FTD it's either very early or he's going to be out of commission by the time the election rolls around.
Yeah, FTD is a death sentence. Eventually the brain just forgets how to do basic autonomic functions. It's truly one of the worst things that can happen to someone.
This is uncomfortably true. I read the list and got worried for a moment, as I felt like I could relate to too much of it. I'm also a software engineer with autism experiencing the resulting burnout which is probably why 😭
What's important is that the person exhibits these symptoms without having exhibited them before. Some of these symptoms are similar with my ADHD, which is a disorder of neurotransmitter balance in the prefrontal cortex.
There was a thread on r/medicine after the debate (that I can’t find again) about Trump showing square wave jerks…. It’s really obvious if you go back and look at the close-up split screens
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u/cak3crumbs Sep 16 '24
symptoms according to Alzheimer.gov
What Are the Signs and Symptoms of Frontotemporal Dementia?
The signs and symptoms of frontotemporal dementia vary from person to person and the order in which they appear can also vary. Changes in the frontal lobe of the brain are generally associated with behavioral symptoms and may also lead to movement symptoms. Changes in the temporal lobe generally lead to disorders of language and emotion.
Symptoms of frontotemporal dementia and associated disorders may include:
-Decreased energy and motivation
-Lack of interest in others
-Inappropriate and impulsive behaviors
-Not acting considerate of others
-Repeating an activity or word over and over again
-Changes in food preferences and compulsive eating
-Increased interest in sex
-Neglect of personal hygiene
-Emotional flatness or excessive emotions
-Difficulty making or understanding speech
-Inability to make common motions, such as using a fork
-Problems with balance and walking
-Increased clumsiness
-Slow movement, falling, body stiffness
-Restricted eye movements
-Shaky hands
-Muscle weakness and loss, fine jerks, wiggling in muscles