Hallucination Stages (2024)

FAQs

What are the 7 types of hallucinations? ›

Stages of hallucination

The most common type of hallucination is the auditory hallucination seen in schizophrenia, where patients experience invasive thoughts and start to hear voices. Hallucination can occur at different levels, ranging from mild to severe.

When to Contact a Medical Professional. A person who begins to hallucinate and is detached from reality should get checked by a health care professional right away.

Functional activation studies of actively hallucinating participants have generally reported increased activity in language areas and in the primary auditory cortex, strongly implicating the superior and middle temporal gyri, although various other nonsensory cortical and subcortical areas have also been implicated.

hear sounds or voices that nobody else hears. see things that are not there like objects, shapes, people or lights. feel touch or movement in your body that is not real like bugs are crawling on your skin or your internal organs are moving around. smell things that do not exist.

Visual hallucinations in those with schizophrenia tend to involve vivid scenes with family members, religious figures, and animals. Reactions to these visions can vary and include fear, pleasure, or indifference.

Sometimes, you may know you're having a hallucination. Other times, you may be sure it's real. If you're like most folks, you probably think hallucinations always have to do with seeing things that aren't really there. But there's a lot more to it.

Each hallucination may last for several minutes or up to several hours, and they often occur in the evening. Many people don't find the hallucinations worrying and realise they are not real.

Auditory (sound) hallucinations: These are the most common type of hallucinations. They involve hearing sounds that aren't real, like music, footsteps or doors banging. Some people hear voices when no one has spoken. The voices may be positive, negative or neutral.

Besides thoughts of self-harm or suicide, you must also consider going to the emergency room if you experience visual or auditory hallucinations, delusions, harmful OCD symptoms, severe side effects of medications, aggression or assault, severe insomnia, confusion, paranoia, and mania.

What happens if hallucinations are left untreated? ›

The best outcomes result from immediate treatment, and when not treated psychosis can lead to illness, injuries, legal and financial difficulties, and even death. Help someone you care about who may be struggling with psychotic symptoms and get professional evaluation and treatment as soon as possible.

You should instead acknowledge their experience and try distracting them from it. Do not engage or join in with their hallucination. Anxiety may make hallucinations and delusions worse. Try to find ways to help the person relax such as talking to them calmly or taking them somewhere quiet to unwind.

Hallucinations cause a person to see, hear, smell, or feel things that are not present. The experiences may seem real, but they are creations of the mind. Hallucinations are most frequently experienced by schizophrenia and Parkinson's patients, but they can also occur after a brain injury.

As specific types of childhood trauma (sexual abuse and physical abuse) are considered to be risk factors for hallucinations, especially AVH, traumatic experiences during childhood may not be related to the presence of AVH themselves, but more to the emotional content of AVH (hearing positive or negative voices).

A study in the January 2016 edition of the journal Consciousness and Cognition documented a connection between anxiety and auditory hallucinations. This study noted that anxiety may cause verbal hallucinations (this is the subset of auditory hallucinations that involves hearing voices).

Hallucinations and your mental health

Many mental health conditions may involve hallucinations. It's most common to hear voices. Schizophrenia is the main one.

The IPSS estimated that 70% of schizophrenia patients experienced hallucinations. [2] The most common hallucinations in schizophrenia are auditory, followed by visual. Tactile, olfactory and gustatory are reported less frequently [Table 1].