Hallucination, A Simple Guide To The Condition, Diagnosis, Treatment And Related Conditions

This book describes Hallucinations, Diagnosis and Treatment and Related Diseases

Hallucinations are intangible things that are only sensed by the person seeing or hearing or feeling them.

Most persons when told of the patient’s hallucinations do not believe them because they do not feel or sense them but to the patient they are very real.

Note that not all hallucinations are bad.

After all Lewis Carol probably wrote Alice in Wonderland after experiencing some hallucinations during a migraine attack!

Sufferers of Alice in Wonderland syndrome may also lose a sense of time, a problem similar to the lack of spatial perspective.

Time seems to pass very slowly, similar to an LSD experience.

While a person's vision is not affected, they will often 'see' objects as the incorrect size, shape or perspective angle.

Hence, people, cars, buildings, houses, animals, trees, environments, etc., look smaller or larger than they should be

Hallucinations are sensory occurrences that seem real but are produced by the mind.

They can involve all five of the senses.

The patient might hear a voice that no one else in the room can hear or see an image that is not real.

Hallucinations can sense things such as visions, sounds, or smells that seem real but are not.

These things are produced by the mind.

Frequent hallucinations can be:

1. Feeling sensations in the body, such as a crawling feeling on the skin or the movement of internal organs.

2. Hearing sounds, such as music, footsteps, windows or doors banging.

3. Hearing voices when no one has spoken (the most frequent type of hallucination).
These voices may be positive, negative, or neutral.

They may command someone to do something that may cause harm to themselves or others.

4. Seeing patterns, lights, beings, or objects that are not there.

5. Smelling an odor.

Occasionally, hallucinations are normal.

The hearing the voice of or briefly seeing a loved one who recently died can be a part of the grieving process.

These symptoms may be produced by mental illnesses, the side effects of medicines, or physical illnesses like epilepsy or alcohol use disorder.

The treatment may involve psychotherapy and taking medicine to treat a health disorder.

The doctor may also advise changing different behaviors like drinking less alcohol and getting more sleep to improve the hallucinations.

Types of hallucinations

Hallucinations may involve the vision, sense of smell, taste, hearing, or bodily sensations.

Visual hallucinations affect seeing things that are not there.

The hallucinations may be of objects, visual patterns, people, or lights.

The patient might visualize a person not in the room or flashing lights that no one else can see.

Olfactory hallucinations affect the sense of smell.

The patient might smell an obnoxious odor when waking up in the middle of the night or feel that the body smells bad when it does not.

This type of hallucination can affect scents the patient finds enjoyable like the smell of flowers.

Gustatory hallucinations are the same as olfactory hallucinations, but they affect the sense of taste instead of smell.

These tastes are often abnormal or unpleasant.

Gustatory hallucinations (often with a metallic taste) are a comparatively frequent symptom for people with epilepsy.

Auditory hallucinations are among the most frequent type of hallucination.

The patient might hear someone speaking to the patient or asking the patient to do certain things.

The voice may be angry, neutral, or warm.

Tactile hallucinations involve the feeling of touch or movement in the body.

TABLE OF CONTENT
Introduction
Chapter 1 Hallucinations
Chapter 2 Causes
Chapter 3 Symptoms
Chapter 4 Diagnosis
Chapter 5 Treatment
Chapter 6 Prognosis
Chapter 7 Delusion Disorder
Chapter 8 Narcolepsy (Updated)
Epilogue