Help please : Stress or early onset dementia (advice or experience please)

Sorry OP. My mother can't remember much at all of the last 30 years. Maybe even of the last 40. About all she remembers is when she was a child and she tells the stories over and over.
Since she has alzheimers and your mom does too, it's quite possible that we will have it also.

This is my anti-alzheimers cocktail.

As I drink my morning coffee, I put a teaspoon of coconut oil in each cup, and in one cup a day, I put One drop of Methylene Blue-- an antifungal you can find for fish. I can't taste it. Methylene blue is the active ingredient in Rember, which is for alzheimers.

My husband has dementia (he is 57).
Stress can do a lot of horrible things to people. When I originally told my doctor son that I thought Randy (husband) had dementia, he said that it was probably just stress or late nights and not sleeping, etc. Stress can also bring on the real disease after a while.
There are other things that seem to go with dementia. For example, a lot of people lose their sence of smell in the early stages of dementia. Has your mom lost her sence of smell? Also, many times it is not simply a loss of time; they seem to lose the ability to figure things out or picture things in their minds.
When I took my husband to the doctor to find out if it was stress and late nights or the onset of dementia, they asked him to do some simple puzzles. They also asked him to spell certain words backwards (spell world backwards). He was unable to spell the word backwards.
In other words, yes, it could be dementia or it could be sudden stress, but it might be good to be looking for secondary things like the sence of smell or change in behavior or even the ability to do things that are common and they could normally do.
Remember, the kind of stress your mom went through could really leave her brain searching for a way to cope and a need to find comfort in simplier times.
God be with you. This is not easy no matter what it is.

Thanks for the update on your mum! I feel more hopeful after hearing that, and honestly many of the responses in this thread have been heart-warming and encouraging on how to deal with elderly folk. And we can all benefit from that. What a helpful discussion. I will pray for your situation even if I don't revisit the thread, many blessings!

Sounds like she had a nervous breakdown because of the immense trauma. A shrink could probably help.

It sounds like she's suffered what my Mom would have called "a wee breakdown" due to the awful events one after the other. Her mind is being very kind and letting her not deal with it all at once. She's in shock, really.

That's my take on it. Based on what you said, she wasn't doing this before all this tragedy. People can go 'round the bend after a series of big shocks. But then you see them later on and they're nearly themselves again.

I wish I still had my Mom to look after. You're all very lucky, and so is your Mom. My advice is to do as much as you can for her, like you have been. Don't let her put you off or chase you. And definitely go into the doctor's office with her; don't let her have her "privacy" because she isn't herself at the moment, and might not tell you what they tell her.

Anyway, good luck, and treasure the time.