Mental Health Relationship between anxiety and hallucinations, questioning the 5 senses.

[Jabberwocky]

I didn't know where particularly to ask this so made a thread. Maybe just seeing if anyone can relate.

When my hallucinations flare up (triggered by drug/alcohol use and an old psychosis I recovered from.. mostly), it makes me very anxious. Some sort of feedback loop is created, and the anxiety then apparently seems to make my hallucinations worse.

However, I get into a state when I become anxious enough in which I will start questioning if sounds/vision inputs I'm receiving are actually real or a hallucination. It's not delusion, I don't question reality on a whole or become paranoid at all. It's specifically with unexpected, quick sounds, physical touch or unexpected visual inputs.

Like if I'm watching TV and some unexpected sound effect occurs in the background of dialogue, I question if it was real or not. 95% of the time I conclude it was, and I'm just overthinking about it. Occasionally I conclude it was a hallucination, even if I may be wrong. When I have actual hallucinations, they're pretty obvious, as they're usually outside of any sort of context.

Anyways I believe this is more anxiety than actual hallucinations most of the time. I worry to much, and am terribly scared of having another psychosis episode.

Does anyone know if there is a term for this? Questioning if things/perceptions you experience were real or not? To my knowledge this does not qualify as delusion since nearly every time I conclude it was real and then move on with my day.

 

[Jerry Atrick]

I didn't know where particularly to ask this so made a thread. Maybe just seeing if anyone can relate.

When my hallucinations flare up (triggered by drug/alcohol use and an old psychosis I recovered from.. mostly), it makes me very anxious. Some sort of feedback loop is created, and the anxiety then apparently seems to make my hallucinations worse.

However, I get into a state when I become anxious enough in which I will start questioning if sounds/vision inputs I'm receiving are actually real or a hallucination. It's not delusion, I don't question reality on a whole or become paranoid at all. It's specifically with unexpected, quick sounds, physical touch or unexpected visual inputs.

Like if I'm watching TV and some unexpected sound effect occurs in the background of dialogue, I question if it was real or not. 95% of the time I conclude it was, and I'm just overthinking about it. Occasionally I conclude it was a hallucination, even if I may be wrong. When I have actual hallucinations, they're pretty obvious, as they're usually outside of any sort of context.

Anyways I believe this is more anxiety than actual hallucinations most of the time. I worry to much, and am terribly scared of having another psychosis episode.

Does anyone know if there is a term for this? Questioning if things/perceptions you experience were real or not? To my knowledge this does not qualify as delusion since nearly every time I conclude it was real and then move on with my day.

I spoke with my psych doc a couple months ago about the times I felt I was having a delusion but was able to talk myself out of it. In your example with the TV thing, it would be like if you heard the thing, questioned whether it was real, and concluded it was real and not a delusion. Or vice versa, concluded it was a delusion but now you know and determine the contrary.

IIRC my psychiatrist said it could be considered insight. Like when one is in full blown psychosis, they may hear that sound on the TV and have an idea of reference where they would believe that the sound was meant for them to hear or directed at them. But when you have insight, you know something is real and not directed at you. Or on the flipside, you know something is NOT real when if in psychosis, you would believe it to be real.

Am I making any sense with this? I think insight is considered a good thing because it means you are aware of the possibility that your thought could be a delusion but are able to make the conscious determination that while it may or may not be a delusion, at least you are aware of it and able to change your belief back to reality (whatever reality is supposed to mean). When we don't have insight, we are just letting these thoughts run rampant and are accepting them at face value to all be real without any awareness to alter that belief.

 

[AbbeyLee]

I didn't know where particularly to ask this so made a thread. Maybe just seeing if anyone can relate.

When my hallucinations flare up (triggered by drug/alcohol use and an old psychosis I recovered from.. mostly), it makes me very anxious. Some sort of feedback loop is created, and the anxiety then apparently seems to make my hallucinations worse.

However, I get into a state when I become anxious enough in which I will start questioning if sounds/vision inputs I'm receiving are actually real or a hallucination. It's not delusion, I don't question reality on a whole or become paranoid at all. It's specifically with unexpected, quick sounds, physical touch or unexpected visual inputs.

Like if I'm watching TV and some unexpected sound effect occurs in the background of dialogue, I question if it was real or not. 95% of the time I conclude it was, and I'm just overthinking about it. Occasionally I conclude it was a hallucination, even if I may be wrong. When I have actual hallucinations, they're pretty obvious, as they're usually outside of any sort of context.

Anyways I believe this is more anxiety than actual hallucinations most of the time. I worry to much, and am terribly scared of having another psychosis episode.

Does anyone know if there is a term for this? Questioning if things/perceptions you experience were real or not? To my knowledge this does not qualify as delusion since nearly every time I conclude it was real and then move on with my day.

Hypervigilance. The nervous system is so sensitised it's on high-alert for danger, like a prey animal. That causes an OCD-like state where you're checking everything to the nth degree and it is a vicious circle/feedback loop. The mind and body are very separated, which makes intuition difficult and you're just honing in on crap basically.

You gotta ground the body somehow.. Anything physical, even just having a shower (heat is always good but maybe it's too hot there?) Food is grounding (as long as it's not full of sugar). The TVs probably pretty bad cos it's passive mental noise.. I can't stand it a lot of the time.

But yeah sensitised (stressed) nervous system. It does some very weird things but it's very different to psychosis.

Oh and laugh at shit!! Put South Park on the stupid TV

 

[Jabberwocky]

I spoke with my psych doc a couple months ago about the times I felt I was having a delusion but was able to talk myself out of it. In your example with the TV thing, it would be like if you heard the thing, questioned whether it was real, and concluded it was real and not a delusion. Or vice versa, concluded it was a delusion but now you know and determine the contrary.

IIRC my psychiatrist said it could be considered insight. Like when one is in full blown psychosis, they may hear that sound on the TV and have an idea of reference where they would believe that the sound was meant for them to hear or directed at them. But when you have insight, you know something is real and not directed at you. Or on the flipside, you know something is NOT real when if in psychosis, you would believe it to be real.

Am I making any sense with this? I think insight is considered a good thing because it means you are aware of the possibility that your thought could be a delusion but are able to make the conscious determination that while it may or may not be a delusion, at least you are aware of it and able to change your belief back to reality (whatever reality is supposed to mean). When we don't have insight, we are just letting these thoughts run rampant and are accepting them at face value to all be real without any awareness to alter that belief.

I understand. I haven't talked to a psychiatrist in awhile (other than a super shitty one a few months ago) because my symptoms haven't been bothersome for a long time until now.

I just question if it's really a delusion, because other than "was that real or not?", there is no other implication, thought or emotion beyond that. I never continue to think about it once I determine if it's real or hallucination.

Even when I hear voices, which is fairly rare for me now, it's always muffled gibberish. I can't even understand what is being said. 3-4 years ago I could actually somewhat understand what the voices were saying, however they never talked or referred to me. Never insinuated or instructed anything to me. It was like a conversation I wasn't even privy to, as if I could hear people talking on a radio in another room yet it was never about me. Nonsense, really. Never thought much of it other than how annoying it was.

I do have this other weird symptom in which my own internal dialogue, in the 1st person, becomes uncontrolled and I start having very odd but also very nonsensical thoughts. I'll hear screaming or chanting in my head, but not like a 3rd party voice. I also hear music playing in my head incessantly. That's quite odd, but still not sure if delusion, because it never leads to anything or makes me think any certain way, I know it's abnormal and unimportant.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Hypervigilance. The nervous system is so sensitised it's on high-alert for danger, like a prey animal. That causes an OCD-like state where you're checking everything to the nth degree and it is a vicious circle/feedback loop.

Yes I absolutely have this, to the point where I start becoming hypersensitive to sounds and very jumpy. I think this is really what I'm referring to. I overfocus on the tiniest abnormalities or sudden inputs.

You gotta ground the body somehow.. Anything physical, even just having a shower (heat is always good but maybe it's too hot there?) Food is grounding (as long as it's not full of sugar). The TVs probably pretty bad cos it's passive mental noise.. I can't stand it a lot of the time.

But yeah sensitised (stressed) nervous system. It does some very weird things but it's very different to psychosis.

Oh and laugh at shit!! Put South Park on the stupid TV

Yeah I've noticed the only thing that really helps is for me to go do something, some activity, to get my mind off of it. Distraction works.

I laugh all the time, even when I'm by myself, at my own stupid jokes and funny thoughts. I have a deep appreciation for my own sense of humor.

No matter how depressed or sullen I am, I always still laugh. It's healing. The day I stop laughing is the day I know something is seriously wrong with me.

 

[paranoid android]

I can relate. My ptsd flares up sometimes triggering my anxiety and i get flashbacks but not a actual break with reality anymore thank god. Clonazepam zopiclone or morphine usually helps me though there are off course problems with that

 

[Fiori di Bella]

When I was in the hospital in October and November last year with sepsis, I know I was having delusions. I was certain that the nurses were talking about me in the hallway and at one point, I was sure my sister had arrived at the hospital and was talking over my very personal issues in depth with the nurses.

I kept hearing a lady moan out José all night and I got mad and started talking to her. I got mad and was yelling “José is not here, please stop talking!” I later found out that there was no woman in the area I thought I heard the moaning from. The next night, I heard a different name being moaned each minute repeatedly. I called the nurse to ask if they heard any moaning and she of course heard nothing. I could not get it to stop and I became convinced I was being haunted by some person who’d died in that hospital room before me.

I’m honestly somewhat worried about going to that hospital, the one I’ve gone to for 26 years, again, even though that’s where my urologist works (who takes out all my stones). I’m afraid they’re going to say amongst themselves, “Oh there’s that crazy girl!” Though logically I think that it’s unlikely they’d remember me that way. The delusions were disturbing.

I wonder if I had the delusions as a result of the fever, or from the 3 antibiotics that I was getting in my arm, plus Dilaudid. I just don’t know, but this has really bothered me.

 

[AlphaMethylPhenyl]

Had a fever dream when I similarly was having hallucinations and delusions, some time ago.