A dad who was diagnosed with younger onset dementia has given a major update to his health, and it’s nothing short of shocking.
Last year, 41-year-old Fraser was given the news that nobody his age could expect to receive.
It was something that changed his life and his future.
Diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, Fraser began to talk about his symptoms and the development of the progressive disease on his YouTube channel, Younger Onset Dementia.
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The Australian said: "So I got diagnosed eight months ago, and I think my symptoms probably started about two/two-and-a-half years before that.
"It's funny because I don't remember what my symptoms really were initially, all I remember was having some pretty big memory flaws, like I remember I was sitting down to watch a movie once and my partner's gone, 'yeah, we watched that like a month ago'.
"Anyway, I watched the whole movie, and the ending was still a complete surprise. I had no memory of watching it whatsoever, and I didn't watch many movies either at the time. So it was, it was a bit concerning that was."
As he talked about his symptoms, he said one occasion, he frantically began looking for his teenage daughter in their town, even though she had told him earlier where she was going.
This all led to several tests with specialists, and his diagnosis.
But Fraser has now come back with a shocking update... he doesn’t have Alzheimer’s disease.
The dad once again took to his channel to tell everyone that his recent scan and test to see how his Alzheimer's was progressing, ended with him being told there was ‘no way’ he had dementia.
Having aced his cognitive tests, doctors were puzzled that he hadn’t progressed as they had expected of a typical patient with the disease.
So, they sent him for further tests.
Fraser said: “I had a bit of a decline in my cognition in some areas uh but not as much as what -you know- not to the extent that you would expect for somebody with Alzheimer's over the past 12 months.”
When doctors questioned his diagnosis and his referral was accepted for more testing, things began to paint a clear picture.
When everything came up clear, there was only one answer to how he could have been misdiagnosed with such a devastating disease.
His mental health.
He explained in his video: “I know all along I have said I don't want this to be mental health. Yeah. But it's mental health.”
Doctors said his symptoms of having anxiety and a perfectionist personality trait, mimicked dementia because an ‘anxious brain has problems filing memories essentially like in a filing cabinet.’
He said those memories aren’t filed in a ‘logical way’, so when it comes to retrieving them, he couldn’t access them.
He explained that this meant he couldn’t remember the small things, and he struggled with speaking because his brain was too busy all the time to keep on top of basic things.
Fraser admitted to sobbing for hours after realising he had more years of his life, and in light of the news, he changed his YouTube channel name to ‘I (don’t) have dementia’.
Topics: Dementia, Health, YouTube, Good News, Mental Health
Britt Jones