Have you ever had a hallucination? What was it like?

by Nathan Natas 82 Replies latest watchtower medical

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  Nathan Natas

  I have almost never had a visual hallucination and I was wondering what they're like. How "real" do they seem? Is there any kind of a hint you get that tells you they are not real? How do you react to them?

  I say "I had almost never..." because there was one time when I was driving the Blue Ridge Highway at zero-dark-thirty and I was sure I kept seeing "something" up ahead crossing the highway. I figure the hallucination was the result of exhaustion because I had been driving for something like 14 hours that day. Needless to say, I did not survive the experience.

  O wait... yeah, I did survive!

  I have also had occasional auditory hallucinations, usually after half-waking up in the middle of the night. I thought I heard a female voice outside my house calling my name. Trust me, I do NOT have female fans who call to me at night from somewhere out of my house. usually they say "Let me OUT! ...NOW!!!"

  If you have had a hallucinatory experience, share it here, please.
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  zeb

  I am Bi-polar and had a change of medications and had the wildest dreams mostly nasty. But the characters in the dreams would continue on into the woken up time (day time) and were of 'see-through' people and scenes. I too was exhausted by work lack of sleep dealing with these entities and happenings so this made the whole thing worse. The doctor took me off that medications!
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  DATA-DOG

  I had an auditory hallucination. I was working 60+ hours a week pouring concrete, and sleeping about four hours a night for a couple of months. It seemed totally real.

  DD
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  NewYork44M

  I would suggest that most hallucinations are drug induced. Since I have never taken drugs (I don't even like to take an aspirin), I have not participated in a hallucinatiory event. Nor, do I want to.

  I treat my mind as a very special commodity. I don't want it wandering where it ought not.
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  Jeffro

  NewYork44M:

  I would suggest that most hallucinations are drug induced.

  Apart from illicit or prescription drugs, hallucinations can have various causes, including fatigue, various sleep disorders (or even interrupted deep sleep), dehydration, feverish illness, cancer, brain injury...
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  JeffT

  Are asking with or without chemical involvement? I saw all sorts of things while on LSD, I think I knew I was seeing things, but there was so much going on mentally it's hard to know. Not an experience I want to repeat, but I'm a lot older now.
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  TD

  If you have had a hallucinatory experience, share it here, please.

  Fatigue halluncinations are fairly common and have nothing to do with the state of your mental health. The brain simply tries to throw up a barrier to force you to stop and rest.

  I had worked 22 hours straight once and was driving home in the wee hours of the morning. I saw a little boy run out in the street and stop right in the path of my vehicle. He cowered and held his hands up in fear. I came to a screeching halt and jumped out of the the truck. But there was nothing. The street was absolutely deserted. It was weird to put it mildly.

  I've heard a number of other people tell very similar stories. Some see traffic barricades that aren't there. Some see other things.
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  snare&racket

  Waking up hearing your name called is very common and not to be considered as symptomatic in most cases. It is very common as is hallucinations following little sleep.

  Having spent some time in an asylum for my training, I was able to interview many patients who did experience them. They were as real to them as anyone else In their real life, any abnormal elements to the experience, the patients explain away via elaborate means. For example, hearing voices is explained away as real people.....using telepathy or picking up radio signals in the mind, or signals being implanted by a malevolent force etc etc. Fascinating though deeply sad and sometimes frightening too.

  i found this video at the time, it is very interesting....

  http://www.ted.com/talks/oliver_sacks_what_hallucination_reveals_about_our_minds.html
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  Nathan Natas

  NewYork44M said, " I would suggest that most hallucinations are drug induced."

  Thanks for sharing your self-righteousness with us. I would suggest that most self-righteous people are assholes.

  I have never taken drugs for entertainment purposes; I don't smoke and although I do drink alcohol, I have never been drunk.

  When you do experience a hallucination, NewYork44M, I would expect you to fail to realize it for what it is.

  You exemplify the adage, "he who speaks doesn't know."
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  TweetieBird

  I was slipped something at a party once when I was a teenager (maybe LSD) and for years after I would have hallucinations when I slept. I would open my eyes from a deep sleep and see huge spiders on the wall, or think someone was in the room. One time I saw blood dripping down a painting. Freaked me out. Haven't had one in a long time.