March Madness: Hallucinations
Our month-long look at madness continues with a look at a common symtom of psychosis: hallucinations. These can be not just seeing things that aren’t there or hearing things that aren’t there but also smelling things that aren’t there.
These vary in intensity from person to person, depending on how healthy the person is and what the cause of the hallucinations are. For example, the hallucinations may be mild, as in you see a person sitting on a couch that isn’t there — yet the chair is.
Hallucinations can happen very briefly, or for some time. If they repeat or last longer than a few hours, I’d really urge you tocall someone. If you are too worried to call a doctor, then call a trusted friend or loved one who you can talk to and they can help you get back to reality. But if the symptoms still persist, please see a doctor. The hallucinations could be the result of a deep seated illness that needs attention.
You can also have hallucinations from taking hallucingenic drugs, like LSD or “shrooms”. If you want to know how powerfully realistic hallucinations can be, watch this film about a bad acid trip (although you don’t need acid to hallucinate). The first few seconds are pretty jumbled, so give it a little while to grow on you:
Please keep in mind that having a hallucination is not always a sign that you need to see a therapist. You can also have hallucinations from sleep deprivation, from auras right before a migraine hits and from eating poison, as in this news report from the Associated Press:
March 5th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
[...] that with LSD, you will see things. You may hear things, too or even smell things, just like an hallucination. But it’s like television — it seems like it’s right there with you, but [...]