My mother is accusing me of stealing things from her all the time. Things that she has given to me over the years. Can this be dementia?
My 57 year old mother has begun accusing me of stealing things from her house. she comes to my house and goes through my cupboards to find things that were once hers and accuses me of taking it. It is usually something of hers that she’d given to me over the years. (Old Tupperware, sheets, towels etc) Most of it she would give to me saying something like “do you need any towels I’m getting rid of some”.
Shes begun finding things at mine that aren’t even hers, or haven’t been for a long time. saying “I’ve been wondering where this went” or “is that mine?” and there’s no telling her otherwise. She recently took back a casserole dish she gave me from her collection when I first moved out 17 years ago. Completely convinced she’d wondered where it went and that I’d stolen it and that she never would have given it to me as it was one of her “good ones”. Now if I even have a hand cream that she also uses- she asks me if I took it from her house.
I read that dementia patients accuse others of stealing when they can’t find things at all in their own space- but it seems that she recognises something in my belongings when she visits and believes that it’s been something she has been missing all this time and it seems like she actually believes I go “shopping” in her belongings somehow while she’s not looking. Is this a sign of dementia? Or just old age? She doesn’t seem to show any other “symptoms”.