What does having visual hallucinations mean?

Question

I have long suffered from auditory hallucinations... but lately, (i think because of these huge stressors in my life...I'm not sure) I have been seeing some terrifying things...
My diagnosis does not include psychsophrenia.

Answer 1

A visual hallucination could mean a variety of things, as could auditory hallucinations. Either could have a biological or psychological origin. To find more about the biological causes I suggest reposting your question in the health or medicine (in science and mathematics) areas if you haven't done so already. Also, I already searched for hallucinations in Wikipedia and they describe some biological conditions that cause hallucinations. The link is below.
Someone mentioned schizophrenia. I'd like to add something I learned during my research as an undergraduate student majoring in psychology because it's a comonly misunderstood disorder/disease. There are five subtypes of schizophrenia, according to the DSM-IV, including Paranoid, Catatonic, Disorganized, Residual, and Undifferentiated. The subtypes of catatonic and disorganized schizophrenia have nothing to do with hallucinations of any sort. They deal with behaviors rather than perceptions. (There is a link below to reference all this, although my information for my paper came directly from the DSM-IV.) However, a person with hallucinations may be identified in the catatonic or disorganized subtypes depending on the criteria and symptoms.
I'm sorry to use your answer for my tangents, but...
I've also heard of hallicinations as being in relation to depression and bipolar. However, I sometimes wonder if those cases are later diagnosed as a case of schizophrenia.
In short, hallicinations that are of a psychological origin may 'mean' that you need medication. If the hallucinations are disrupting your life, the need might be greater.
Also, you mentioned stressors as the cause of the hallucinations. I agree that you may be right. Though schizophrenia isn't your diagnosis, the most sensical and compelling cause of schizophrenia (of course, just my undergrad opinion) was the stressor-diathesis model. Simply, a biological predisposition to the disease causes the disease to exhibit itself after the onset of a stressful or traumatic event. In addition, if the hallucinations are related to depression, and the depression is related to stress, then the hallucinations are related to stress.
But psychology is a lot of theories and everyone is different.

Answer 2

Basically, visual hallucinatons are seeing things that aren't there. It seems like you already knew this answer since you said that you've "been seeing some terrifying things." And my question is: if you have been having auditory hallucinations (hearing voices) for years, are you not on medication? I also have never heard of a mental illness called "psychsophrenia" and am tempted to tell you there is no such thing. Did you mean "schizophrenia?" That is an illness which usually carries with it audio and sometimes visual hallucinations. In fact, other than a BoPolar person in an acute, psychotic manic state, Schizophrenia is the ONLY disorder I can think with hallucinations, other than drug-induced states of ocurse. Anyway: your answer is obvious: see a psychiatrist.

Answer 3

Visual Hallucinations
Visual hallucinations are the most common type of hallucination in dementia. The person may see people, animals or other objects. Sometimes the hallucinations involve quite complicated scenes or bizarre situations.

Visual hallucinations can start with misinterpretations. The person may think they see faces or objects in swirling patterns on fabrics or in the shadows in a room, for instance.

Many people with dementia who experience visual hallucinations only experience them occasionally. Moreover they often only last a few seconds. However, sometimes they are more persistent and troublesome. Possible causes of visual hallucinations include:

Illness: Hallucinations can result from physical illness such as infections or the side-effects of some types of medication. Advice from a doctor is usually necessary to help rule out these possibilities.

Eyesight: Visual hallucinations may be due to poor eyesight. Poor eyesight cannot always be improved but you should:

arrange regular eye checks and encourage the person to wear their glasses if they need them discuss with the GP whether cataracts should be removed if poor sight is due to cataracts
check that any glasses worn are clean and of the right strength
make sure that there is good lighting
Changes in the brain: People sometimes experience hallucinations because of changes that are occurring in their brain as the dementia progresses.

Visual hallucinations often occur in people who have Lewy body dementia. In this type of dementia the person usually has a mixture of the symptoms found in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

People who have persistent visual hallucinations together with stiffness and slowing of movement, or marked fluctuations in their abilities, are likely to have Lewy body dementia. If this is the case, anti-psychotic medication, which is sometimes given for troublesome hallucinations, can make any stiffness worse. It should therefore only be prescribed in low doses, if at all, and regularly reviewed.

go there, it's interesting

Answer 4

Best factor so that you can do proper now's simply attempt to loosen up, take a deep breath, and pass lay down and get a few sleep. Everything goes to be ok, simply relaxation. Like you mentioned you have had a worrying weekend and you are worn out, you can think bigger the following day.

Answer 5

Studies have now shown hallucinatory experiences take place across the population as a whole. Previous studies, one as early as 1894, have reported that approximately 10% of the population experience hallucinations. A recent survey of over 13,000 people reported a much higher figure with almost 39% of people reported hallucinatory experiences, 27% of which reported daytime hallucinations, mostly outside the context of illness or drug use. From this survey, olfactory (smell) and gustatory (taste) hallucinations seem the most common in the general population.

Hypnagogic hallucinations and hypnopompic hallucinations are considered normal phenomena. Hypnagogic hallucinations can occur as one is falling asleep and hypnopompic hallucinations occur when one is waking up.

Auditory hallucinations, particularly of one or more talking voices, are particularly associated with psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia, and hold special significance in diagnosing these conditions, although many people not suffering from diagnosable mental illness may sometimes hear voices as well. The Hearing Voices Movement is a response to the Psychiatric interpretation of auditory hallucination.

Florid hallucinations are usually associated with drug use (particularly hallucinogenic drugs), sleep deprivation, psychosis or neurological illness.

Scientific explanations
Various theories have been put forward to explain the occurrence of hallucinations. When psychodynamic (Freudian) theories were popular in psychiatry, hallucinations were seen as a projection of unconscious wishes and desires. As biological theories have become orthodox, hallucinations are more often thought of (by psychiatrists at least) as being caused by functional deficits in the brain. With reference to mental illness, the function (or dysfunction) of the neurotransmitter dopamine is thought to be particularly important.

Psychological research has argued that hallucinations may result from biases in what are known as metacognitive abilities. These are abilities that allow us to monitor or draw inferences from our own internal psychological states (such as intentions, memories, beliefs and thoughts). The ability to discriminate between self-generated and external sources of information is considered to be an important metacognitive skill and one which may break down to cause hallucinatory experiences. Projection of an internal state or a person's own reaction to another may arise in the form of hallucinations, especially auditory hallucinations.

Visual Hallucination Subtypes

Hypnagogic Hallucination
These hallucinations occur just before falling asleep and affect a surprising number of people in the population. The hallucinations can last from seconds to minutes, all the while the subject usually remains aware of the true nature of the images. These are usually associated with narcolepsy, but can also affect non-narcoleptics. Hypnagogic hallucinations are sometimes associated with brainstem abnormalities, but this is rare. .

Peduncular Hallucinosis
Peduncular means pertaining to the peduncle, which is a name given to a neural tract running to and from the pons. These hallucinations occur most often in the evenings, but not during drowsiness as in the case above. The subject is usually fully conscious and can interact with the hallucinatory characters for extended periods of time. As in the case of hypnagogic hallucinations, insight into the nature of the images remains intact. The false images can occur in any part of the visual field, and are rarely polymodal.

Delirium Tremens
One of the most enigmatic forms of visual hallucinations are the highly variable, possibly polymodal Delirium Tremens. As the name suggests, the subject is usually agitated and confused, especially in the later stages of this disease. Insight is gradually reduced with the progression of this disorder. Sleep is disturbed and short, with REM overflow.

Parkinson's disease and Lewy body Dementia
Parkinson's disease is linked with Lewy body Dementia for their similar hallucinatory symptoms. The symptoms strike during the evening in any part of the visual field and are rarely polymodal. The segue into hallucinations may start with illusions where sensory perception is greatly distorted, but no novel sensory information is present. These typically last for several minutes, during which time the subject may be either conscious and normal or drowsy/inaccessible. Insight into these hallucinations is usually preserved and REM sleep is usually reduced. Parkinson's disease is usually associated with a degraded substantia nigra pars compacta, but recent evidence suggests that PD affects a handful of other sites in the brain. Some places of noted degradation include the median raphe nuclei, the noradrenergic parts of the locus coeruleus and the cholinergic neurons in the parabrachial and pedunculopontine nuclei of the tegmentum.

Migraine Coma
This type of hallucination is usually experienced during the recovery from a comatose state. The migraine coma can last for up to two days and a state of depression is sometimes comorbid. The hallucinations occur during states of full consciousness and insight into the hallucinatory nature of the images is preserved. It has been noted that ataxic lesions accompany the migraine coma.

Charles Bonnet Syndrome
Charles Bonnet Syndrome is the name given to visual hallucinations experienced by blind patients. The hallucinations can usually be dispersed by opening or closing the eyelids until the visual images disappear. The hallucinations usually occur during the morning or evening, but are not dependent on low light conditions. These prolonged hallucinations usually do not disturb the patients very much as they are aware that they are hallucinating.

Focal Epilepsy
The visual hallucinations from focal epilepsy are characterized by being brief, and stereotyped. They are usually localized to one part of the visual field and last only a few seconds. Other epileptic features may present themselves between visual episodes. Consciousness is usually impaired in some way, but nevertheless insight into the hallucination is preserved. Usually this type of focal epilepsy is caused by a lesion in the posterior temporoparietal.

Paranormal theories
A rarely expressed but persistent alternate explanation of hallucinations, espoused by non-materialists, is that people prone to hallucinations can sometimes perceive non-physical phenomena such as angels, visions or the voices of departed spirits or demons. For this reason, a hallucination may also be classified as an anomalous phenomenon, when no suitable scientific explanation is verified.