hallucinations

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy Forums

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy forums - a peer support community for folks dealing (directly or indirectly) with seizure disorders. You can visit the forum page to see the list of forum nodes (categories/rooms) for topics.

Please have a look around and if you like what you see, please consider registering an account and joining the discussions. When you register an account and log in, you may enjoy additional benefits including no ads, access to members only (ie. private) forum nodes and more. Registering an account is free - you have nothing to lose!

S

Sylvia

New
Messages
35
Reaction score
0
Points
0
I have been afraid to talk about this to anyone. But here I feel safe.
I have hallucinations. Not big ones but enough so I notice them. Like people walking past me that aren't there. A bug on my bath towel that when I got closer it vanished. it wasn't real.
Ok, I don't have schizophrenia. Could this be caused by medication or is this a part of some seizures?
 
Hallucinations can be a kind of Simple Partial Seizure. Simple partials can take a wide variety of forms, including sensory distortions. Among other things, people experiencing simple partials...

"...may have visual hallucinations, seeing things that aren't there (a spot of light, a scene with people). They also may experience illusions—distortions of true sensations. For instance, they may believe that a parked car is moving farther away, or that a person's voice is muffled when it's actually clear."
Click to expand...

from: http://www.epilepsy.com/epilepsy/seizure_simplepartial

Worth mentioning to your doctor.
 
Sylvia, my daughter has definitely had visual (and auditory) hallucinations during simple partials. She once saw the people she had spent the previous evening with and another occasion saw a group of dogs in the house. Try not to worry about it but, as Nak says, you should mention it to your doc.
 
Thank you so much for the responses. I do have simple partial seizures. Left frontal lobe. So it makes sense. I like that I can ask anything here and know one laughs. :hugs:
 
Hi Sylvia,
About 10 years ago I went through a stage where I was a little bit depressed (I was crying over little things) due to some stress I had in my life at the time. I saw my neurologist & he put me on a depression med (can't remember which med it was).

Anyway after I was put on the depression med I started to have auditory hallucinations, hearing voices that weren't there.
- 1st time I was in my bathroom & thought the clothes pegs were talking to each other.
- 2nd time I was in the shower & thought the taps were talking to each other saying they were going to turn the water of.
- 3rd time I was having lunch with my best friend & we were sitting at the bus stop. There was a lot of people walking around, while sitting with my friend I heard this voice in my head say 'you know I'm here you know you can see me stop pretending'. I asked my friend if she heard someone say something to us & she said no.

I was a little scared to tell people about what was happening because I thought I was going crazy, I think it was ages before I even told my Mum (I usually tell my Mum about all my seizures).
I ended up telling a coworker who got worried & told my supervisor. My supervisor freaked out & got worried the voices in my head would tell me to get a knife & stab them (I know a bit of an over reaction). My supervisor wanted to ring my neurologist but I knew he wouldn't speak to her (apart from me the only person my neuro will speak to is my Mum) so she asked me to ring my neurologist. I ended up ringing the neurologist & made an appt to see him.

When I saw the neurologist he said he was sure the funny noises I heard was the depression med reacting to my epilepsy med so he took me straight of the depression meds. After I was taken of the depression med the noises stopped & my neurologist was careful about what meds he tried me on. I never went on another depression med & learnt to cope other ways.
 
Last edited:
Hi Sylvia, Like Nakamova said visual and auditory hallucinations can be due to partial seizures. I have them daily, just mention it to your doctor in case s/he may want to adjust your meds. I hear my door shutting and sometimes I hear a cat crying. Both sounds are stored and I hear them over and over again. Isn't it wonderful that we have a safe place to go to ask questions where we won't be judged? :)
 
CQ and Brandibrat, thank you for your info. I do take an antidepressant. I have for years. And now you mention it, my son has bi-polar with psychosis. His last episode the doctor had him stop his antidepressant. The psychosis stopped. He hasn't had an episode since. Not that it was the reason he had psychosis but the doctor said it did trigger it again. He has been on antipsychotic meds for years. I might talk to my doctor about my combo of Lamictal and celexa.
 
I ended up in the neuros office because I saw and heard people who weren't there. My sense of smell also went the roof - like someone shoved everything up my nose. It was really hard to tell my primary care doc about the hallucinations. We are not crazy just have very enhanced senses! I tell people I see dead people ... They think I am joking.
 
Thanks SJConnor for telling me. Since I started having seizures I have lost some of my sense of smell and taste. But again today I saw another bug walking on my window pane that wasn't there. Also people walking by me, I see them in my side vision. I had a seizure this morning. Even though I had taken my Lamictal an hour before. It helps to know I am not alone. It makes me feel so much better just to know I can come here.
 
I am also taking lamictal. I started about it about three months ago. I was still having seizures so he ordered a levels test and upped my dosage. I had another levels test today so we will see what he has to say. I hope the lamictal works for you. It is much nicer to me than the topamax I was on.
 
SJConnor
My Lamictal was doubled back in March. The month of March I did great but now having the seizures again. I went back to him two weeks ago. He had the levels test done and said they were fine. So he isn't changing anything. At first I was discouraged but now I am saying heck with it. I will just have to live with things the way they are.
 
I was at 100 mg twice a day and now am at 150 mg twice a day. From my understanding (and info from this forum) there isn't really any therapeutic level. My doc said I was at the low end at 100 twice a day. I am a tiny person (5'8" and 110 lbs) so I wonder how much higher I will need to go to be in the therapeutic level zone that he wants. I have been seizure free for just over a month. I was having them once a month or so and they were progressing to complex partials. Maybe the lamictal dose he put you on in March will help; maybe your body needs a bit more time for it to really adjust especially if it helped at first. :ponder:
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom