Poll Have You Experienced Hallucinations?

[Heather]

I've recently started to experience hallucinations. I was wondering who else had similar experience with hallucinations i.e. auditory, visual etc.

These hallucinations started when I was watching a movie. The woman in the movie was looking in the closet and a creepy voice said, "olllie, ollie oxen free" and I didn't understand why she didn't react and then realized because it wasn't coming from the t.v. it was coming from inside my head. I've heard knocking that isn't there, scratching, whispering, glass breaking, saw a fuzzy man standing in my kitchen.

Most recently very violent hallucinations that landed me inpatient.

 

[Gamereign555]

I regularly have Hypnagogic/Hypnagogia episodes which I guess some are considering a type of hallucination, other than that no. But when I was a lot younger I used to dabble in LSD and PCP, although PCP is more depersonalization.

 

[anni]

Have you done a Google search with this, to see what perhaps others might be experiencing in the same situation with meds, etc? What did the docs say, when you ended up in the hospital with the violent event-surely someone had a good look into things for you? This must be very disturbing for you-scary to say the least. I hate to sort of 'accuse' you of being 'normal' when you don't feel that way, have terrible traumas but have to say just from what I've seen of you here you sound balanced, sweet, and kind while working towards some healing. Hope that's ok to say. Have you previously had anything like this? If it were me, and as goofy as it sounds of me ( because yes, it sounds goofy please excuse), I'd probably be blaming an annoying ghost but perhaps because I do not have the sense to look into my own chemistry, I do not know.

I hope someone is able to put some of the pieces together with this mystery for you, and give you some peace, Heather. Do take care, and am thinking of you.

Anni

 

[Anna]

I have experienced auditory and visual hallucinations. The visual ones have made me jump a couple of times. I realise they are not real though and they tend to happen when I am tired. The auditory ones I have experienced only once and never again.

 

[scott_1971_h]

I havn't had any outright hallucinations without "helpers". Had a couple of times where I thought I'd done things I hadn't though (that can be heaps disorientating) and a few times I thought I hadn't done things and discovered they had been done. By all accounts I did them but the memory is pretty patchy if at all.

 

[NightKitten]

I have heard my name called, thought I heard people talking outside my bedroom window, and I even have heard only what I can describe as "angelic" music for several minutes but only twice in my life.

 

[Addy]

I chose 'no hallucinations' because I don't view flashbacks as hallucinations, more like short movie or photo clips of my past... nothing delusional... all too true and frightening.

 

[Gamereign555]

Yeah, I think very few people have experienced true hallucinations, even with drugs, you still remember your on drugs...hopefully. It must be pretty frightening to feel like you are losing control of your mind, like your grip on reality is not what it should be.

 

[mmir]

Visual hallucinations under SSRIs!

 

[Powder]

Visual hallucinations under SSRIs!

This is my point, so thanks for getting it started. SSRIs actually raise the Dopamine level in the brain to unnaturally high levels. Dopamine is from my research, not something I want messed with, ever. When you get Parkinsons disease, Dopamine stops being produced. We have a limited supply of it. They prescribe L-Dopa, which is a drug that blocks the existing Dopamine from being broken down and extinguished. Basically, it forces the body to keep what it has. The problem is that it hurts the long-term supply (there is a 15 year timer), so L-Dopa is only given for severe P. and when the person is old enough that they probably only have 15 years of life or less left anyways.

In my past, I took SSRI's for PTSD. It was a disaster. I got auditory hallucinations when I would lie down to try to sleep. It also made sleep very difficult (awake at night) and sleepy during the day. Concentration was whacked. And it activated me, so I felt suicidal. I don't believe they have done enough long-term research on SSRI's to ensure their safety, especially for true PTSD. For depression, maybe. Even then, they don't know what your brain will be like in your 80s.

Watch for symptoms and wean off with supervision if they are severe, such as hallucinations, IMHO. I am not giving out medical advice, only common sense, so please talk to Dr.s. My shrink wanted to give me additional pills to control the hallucinations caused by the SSRIs. I think that is the real definition of "crazy." I've seen people on 20+ different types of pills. This is malpractice is it not? Don't allow yourself to be treated like a lab rat. PTSD's depersonalization can make it a challenge to stand up for your human rights. Don't allow the label of PTSD to over-ride your human insticts of self-preservation and human dignity. Don't allow yourself to be medicated until you go psychotic! This is a huge setback in the healing of PTSD because you will feel as if you are falling apart and nobody cares.

That's my take on being over-medicated. I am pretty angry about it, as you can see. There ought to be more laws to protect patients from this.

Muse

 

[mmir]

This is my point, so thanks for getting it started. SSRIs actually raise the Dopamine level in the brain to unnaturally high levels. Dopamine is from my research, not something I want messed with, ever. When you get Parkinsons disease, Dopamine stops being produced. We have a limited supply of it. They prescribe L-Dopa, which is a drug that blocks the existing Dopamine from being broken down and extinguished. Basically, it forces the body to keep what it has. The problem is that it hurts the long-term supply (there is a 15 year timer), so L-Dopa is only given for severe P. and when the person is old enough that they probably only have 15 years of life or less left anyways.

Muse,

Check out my introduction in the 'Introductions' section. A black-box warning side effect from an SSRI (Zoloft) is what sent me to a mental hospital and CAUSED MY PTSD! At the hospital they gave me Lexapro which caused visual hallucinations.

Now I'm on tryciclic antidepressant and benzos....and trying to slowly taper off the benzos before they make me addicted or kill me.

Search for 'Rebekah Beddoe' online. She's an australian whose life was ruined by psych medications for 2-3 years. It wasn't until she weaned herself from the meds that she got better. Her story starts eerily similar to mine....

I do not doubt the fact that psych meds may help some, but I am not sure it counters the fact that many others are hurt by them...

 

[Powder]

I've recently started to experience hallucinations. I was wondering who else had similar experience with hallucinations i.e. auditory, visual etc.

These hallucinations started when I was watching a movie. The woman in the movie was looking in the closet and a creepy voice said, "olllie, ollie oxen free" and I didn't understand why she didn't react and then realized because it wasn't coming from the t.v. it was coming from inside my head. I've heard knocking that isn't there, scratching, whispering, glass breaking, saw a fuzzy man standing in my kitchen.

Most recently very violent hallucinations that landed me inpatient.

Heather: I thought you said this was a flashback. I see hallucination and flashback as two seperate things, but I can see how it would be confusing, if you can't attribute the experience to the past. So if you don't think it was related to something that happened to you, then I guess that would be a hallucination, not a fb. What do you think?
It may be hard for people with PTSD to know which it is, but here's my experience of the two. I'd like input to help clearly define any differences we can locate:

H. : When one is hallucinating, is there not some awareness that the senses are being stimulated with something "unreal." Is there not a "is this just in my head?" kind of question hanging over it? There is something going on in the mind, and also enough doubt of its reality to question its reality. There is little emotional connections. It feels random and linked to random thoughts, more like a dream. It seems to have the purpose of burning off residual unprocessed thoughts, like a dream. There is little to process about it, as it seems unrelated to other thoughts and emotions. True/False for you?

FB. During a flashback, the sensation feels like it is actually fully happening in the present, even if it is just auditory, visual, or tactile. These feel "real" and rather than asking "is this just in my head?" one asks "What the Hell is going on?!" One may even Dissociate to avoid the feeling of the trauma that created the FB. This can last for days. Flooding and intrusive thoughts of the old memories and repressed memories and body memories can surface, as well as emotional flooding and anguish. The experience of the FB takes over. This is little left for questioning "is this in my head" because the experience "takes over the wheel of the car" for a while. There is so much emotion that is related and so much information that is connected that it actually would appear difficult to make all the connections on your own. Much talk therapy would need to happen to label and process all the connected emotions and to "unpack" the meaning of the FB. It has personal significance and is often very traumatic to the individual.

This is my definition of the two different things, Hallucination and Flashback, given my experience of PTSD on and off SSRIs. (Hallucination only on SSRI's for awhile). Flashbacks didn't rely on meds to happen.

If anyone can help clarify the experiences of these and where it reaches a grey area, I think it might help. Both of these are very hard for people with PTSD to go through, and it can be very alienating and confusing. It really helps to see that others can help sort it out with you.

Love, Muse