Hi Anyone on here in their 60's with word jumbling ie going to say one word but another one comes out, or trying to bring a word to mind? I went to the doctors convinced it was the start of dementia!, but he has said it's anxiety, my daughter in law who is a mental health nurse agrees. I have had heightened health anxiety since hitting 60, I am still going through the menopause and apparently anxiety is worse in post meno, so thinking it's all sort of connected, basically just wondering if anyone here has similar with anxiety?
all the time!! or itll come out slurred…
I can be slurred as well, this is usually when I think I am having an adrenalin surge, it’s as if I’ve had a alcoholic drink!! When I’m in a confident conversation I am word perfect, but any hint of anxiousness even if I’m not aware of it seems to set me off saying a wrong word or even brain freeze where I can’t find the word that I want to use. My brain seems to go to mush when I have to do things in front of people ie I can quite happily tap away on a keyboard until someone looks over my shoulder and then all of a sudden I can’t find the keys that I need!! so bazaar!! I know that deep down I need to learn to control my anxiety, the first thing that always springs to mind with me is dementia and I totally fail to take in that although my dad had dementia, I also have many relatives who have lived to their 80’s and 90’s dementia free! but it’s the nature of anxiety that makes us focus on the one negative!!
Thank you for your reply Christina, and I expect that you can relate to some of this?
I’m older than you and, also, worry about dementia. I have read that anxiety is so powerful in our lives that it affects everything we do and think.
I’m forgetful to the point I see my husband giving me that “look” like how can you not remember that!!
Its just that I always have a zillion thoughts racing through my brain and, sometimes, the most important ones (where are my keys??) get pushed to the rear!
Then he bought me some herbs from Whole Foods to prevent memory loss.
Yikes.
He says he’s really not worried but I am a tad concerned, too. I’m terrible on those number memory tests.
I draw a “blank” often if I’m speaking publically - pretty sure that’s anxiety.
Hi ro77360
I am the same in that my head is permanently full of what I need to do next, I’m basically still in busy household mode, I still get up at 6am and rush about doing the basics before my first cup of coffee! it’s ridiculous!! I have no need to rush about, it’s as they say, old habits die hard haha 
I don’t know about you but my health anxiety did get worse once I hit 60, a few life changes at that time. I also still have menopause symptoms which I think might be playing a part. I too draw a blank at certain situations, if someone is with me at the cash machine and they start talking it sends me all fingers and thumbs and I have even forgot my pin number!! this like you I put down to anxiety. I also doubt people when they tell me what it is or isn’t, I should trust my doctor and daughter in law who is a mental health nurse when they say I’ve not got dementia, my daughter in law just laughs at me and says she isn’t worried or concerned at all!! I think maybe me and you need to try and calm our anxiety, I tend to get over one worry by refocusing my anxiety onto something else, then start stressing all over again!! this heightened anxiety has been going on for nearly three years and it’s wearing me down, before that I had what I say is normal anxiety, I was able to live with that level, think I’ve got too much thinking time on my hands!!
I am forever doing memory tests etc… just to convince myself that I can still do them, I think that maybe your problem with the number memory thing is that as soon as you start to do one you are immediately under pressure and so fail to do it well, I can sit and answer questions on quiz programs but I know that I would completely blank out if put in front of an audience!!
It’s good to chat with someone in a similar age group!!
HI Annette - you are a youngster next to me (75) but I’m plugging along pretty well, I guess.
I worry about everything all the time.
One of my problems is I have too much time on my hands -need to get my mind (and fingers) off the internet and into something more constructive and challenging.
Also the worrying runs in my family - what a bunch we are! (or were…)
Hi Ro
My mum is 84 and she lives her life to the full, she has three holidays booked this year, and plans her days so that she is doing something every day, I feel old compared, I do wonder if at some point we learn to love life again! my mum certainly is my incentive!! she has Parkinsons but the doctor has told her that it won’t begin to affect her in her lifetime, so she just carries on regardless haha
I agree that we need to find more to do and get off the internet, and keep off google!! I too am a born worrier, my husband doesn’t worry about his health at all, whereas I have sleepless nights over a spot!! it’s ridiculous!! I’m an avid book reader which takes me out of myself for s few hours and I never say no to an outing with any of the family.
My mum has proved that life is for living and not worrying, we both need to take a leaf out of her book
She is wonderful - was she ever a worrier at all in her life?
I’m the same as you…a “spot?” OMG - I will be up googling images and forums all night plus the hyperventilating and heart pounding that goes with it.
Skin cancer is one of my top health anxiety issues, and, as a doctor avoider, they are almost always on my agenda of things to “check out.”
I used to be an avid reader now I’m more of an avid listener on “Audible.”
When I can’t sleep I listen to a Harry Potter or Fellowship of the Ring with Frodo and company.
My mum doesn’t worry about things half as much as me but then she doesn’t use the internet or any technology so she lives in ignorant bliss!! I reckon if we didn’t google everything then most aches and pains would just come and go without us worrying about it, but no we have to google everything and all of a sudden we are at deaths door haha
I do accept all invites for health screens such as breast, bowel and cervical just because it’s silly not to, but then I stress about the results, awaiting results of a routine mammogram at the moment.
Audio sounds really good to relax to! I usually have the tv on all night because the background noise helps me sleep better.
Hello Darrin
Thank you for your reply
I can definitely identify the source of my anxiety, it began nearly three years ago when I became 60, I went to the doctors with a health complaint, I was diagnosed with acid reflux, I wasn’t convinced and googled everything and eventually got myself into a right state thinking I had got all sorts, but what stuck in my mind was that it seemed that most symptoms for anything were nothing to worry about unless you were over 60, this has ever since stuck in my mind and has been the building blocks as to how I am now! I worry about my health so much and dwell on relatives who have died in their 60’s because of cancer, my pet worry at the moment is dementia because my dad had it, so because I am jumbling words a bit I am thinking the worst even though my doctor has told me I haven’t got it and it’s anxiety, my daughter in law who is a mental health nurse also says it’s not dementia. My way of thinking at the moment won’t allow me to trust what people are saying to me.
I do realise that once I am convinced that I haven’t got one ailment I refocus onto another one, I reckon I have been word jumbling for years and accepted it as just what I do but now it is my new focus. I know what I need to do but am finding it hard to get started, I need to try to push the focused thoughts to one side and ignore them, I do manage to do this but then as already explained I refocus!
just to add Darrin, I do accept and go to all invited health screenings (then stress until I get the results) I have never smoked, rarely drink and am a healthy weight. I worry about people who should be worrying about their health haha I am a very good listener and can give out good advice and reassurance but find it hard to accept that same advice for myself!
Me, too.
For the past 3 months I’ve been bothered with a post UTI bladder pain syndrome.
I may (!) be coming out of it now and already 'have gone to other body parts I worry about that have been on the “back burner” so to speak.
yes annette! im in my early 60s and have had anxiety since childhood. ive had tripping on words, occasional slower recall, and other things that are so scary. i also worry about that. but docs say anxiety.
you arent alone. its good to chat with someone around my age! message me anytime!! 
HI
Very rarely, now (menopause 48) am now just 60, my speach can be terrible. it was so bad that i got called in to see my boss, along with HR manager.
I was a practice manager at a drs surgery, i didnt have much direct contact with patients. I occasionally would go in the waiting room to pin up notices etc, but didnt particularly like talking to patients.
Apparantly a patient had complained that shed spoken to me and i was so drunk i couldnt speak properly and was slerring my words. i was absolutely mortified, burst into tears, couldnt speak properly and was escorted out of the surgery and told to come back next morning when id sobured up.
I only lived down the road and was a jibbering wreck. luckily for me my daughter, whose an A&E doctor called in and saw the state i was in. Told her what had happened and she was furious. She took me back to the surgery, demanded to see the senior partner and insisted he do a blood test immediately himself which he did reluctantly. she told him not to let it out of his site and give it to the courier personally with a request for a full tox screen to test for alcohol and we went home.
He phoned a couple of hours later asking us to go back to see him. I’d calmed down by then so could speak properly as i knew the result. Completely free of alcohol or drugs.
Sorry for the long rambling reply, but can really empathise with you. Apparently its called Anxiety Induced Speach Paralisis (excuse my spelling!) a very rare condition linked to hormone imbalance. I’m not saying thats what youve got, just that there are similarities.
By the way, I told them where to stick their job and never went back. They never even apologised and since then ive always got a breathalyser in my handbag,
To be honest Jan I would say that I was born anxious and worrying! It’s good to have a conversation with someone of a similar age! are you like me in that if you are completely in the zone when conversing you have no word mishaps? mine happen when I become aware of the words coming out of my mouth and then I keep saying the wrong words even though I think that I am relaxed! when I went to see the doctor about it, I didn’t have one word slip up because I was more focused on the content of what I was explaining, he noted that my speech was fluent and uninterrupted and said he thought it was anxiety and certainly not worried about dementia etc… he did ask if I was forgetful to which I replied no, but because he asked the question I have now focused on it and am now doubting my memory!! that has to be anxiety, I have done online memory testing and sail through those, though to be honest if asked to remember a few words to recite in a few minutes I would struggle because I have always since a child found that things take longer to sink in, I used to think that I had low intelligence, but as I became an adult I realised that I was intelligent but that no one had given me the time at school to catch up, I actually at the age of about 8 decided to teach myself to read and spell, I read everything and anything and I would spell new words over and over again until I knew them, I did the same with numbers. I was hopeless at exams because I couldn’t perform under pressure! my brain just blocks when under pressure. I think I have a good memory but ask me to remember three or four words, and I find it nigh impossible because of the pressure to perform!! I become jittery at store checkouts and become all fingers and thumbs when packing my shopping, I get really annoyed with myself and tell myself to slow down and not to worry about the person waiting in line behind me!
Sorry for the essay Jan! but also good to talk to someone feeling similar to me.
Hi Vickylou
I can completely empathise with you! I start to slur my words sometimes, to me it feels like an adrenalin surge and it also makes me feel as if I’ve had an alcoholic drink when I am completely sober, in fact I rarely drink!
Your experience was horrendous!! it must have knocked your confidence completely! I agree that it is anxiety.
You did right to not go back to work, being a medical centre they should have had a lot more understanding, it’s disgraceful!
So do you think that the word jumbling was due to the menopause, I think that mine is a combination of meno and anxiety, my last period was 10 years ago, I am still getting hot flushes day and night and the odd few spots which I put down to hormones still lurking about, from what I have heard, meno symptoms can go but come back with a vengeance, and new symptoms can crop up.
I can completely empathise Ro!! we just know that we are going to refocus on something else, the only consolation is that we know that once we refocus we know that the previous worry virtually goes away which makes us think what was all the fuss about!! but yet we carry on in the same vein and fail to conquer it!! I know what I need to do but fail to be able to do it. My husband thinks I need medication just to relax my mind a bit, he is on medication for anxiety and he says it helps tremendously, but I have a stubbornness that makes me want to do it by myself, get to the root of it and sort it out, but I must admit it’s pretty much got me worn down at the moment!
i am all of these posts!!!
Rose I’m just glad to know that I’m not on my own, I get odd looks if I say I prefer dark nights, I do like light mornings though.