Why you may be hallucinating

What are hallucinations

Hallucination is when we we see, we hear or feel objects that are not really there. A person does not always understand that he is hallucinating. Some of them are so real that they are difficult to distinguish from actual events or sensations.

Hallucinations are visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory and tactile. There are also presence hallucinations, when it seems that someone is in the room, and proprioceptive ones, when it seems that your body is moving, for example, flying, but this is not so. The mechanism of their occurrence is complex, since is is a chain of pathological, that is, abnormal, reactions in the brain. This cascade of reactions is associated with various factors: physiological, neurochemical, psychological and even genetic - some people are predisposed to hallucinations.

Hallucinations should not be confused with delusions and illusions. Delusion is an unshakable belief in something unreal. For example, there is delusion of persecution, when a person is absolutely sure that the FSB is watching him. An illusion is an incorrect interpretation of what is seen. For example, you might mistake a black bag on a windowsill for a cat, but if you look closely, everything will fall into place. We would be talking about a hallucination if the window sill were empty.

Why can you hallucinate?

Causes of hallucinations Can divided into four main groups:

• short-term conditions;
• neurological diseases;
• some mental states;
• side effects of medications.

What short-term conditions cause hallucinations?

In this case, the brain generates pathological signals under the influence of circumstances. And as soon as the influence of these factors stops, the perception of reality returns to normal.

1. Sleep and awakening

When a person is ready to fall into deep dream or, on the contrary, he is just waking up, the brain has not yet fully optimized its work. Such hallucinations are called hypnagogic (when you fall asleep) and hypnopompic (when you wake up). They occur due to a change in the state of consciousness or a transition to the rapid phase of sleep, when the brain is active but the muscles are no longer active.

2. Alcohol and drug use

Alcohol affects on gamma-aminobutyric acid in the brain, which slows down many neurochemical processes, including information processing. At the same time, the activity of the central nervous system decreases. This affects the brain's ability to filter and process incoming signals, which leads to a distortion of reality.

Drugs alter levels of serotonin, dopamine and glutamate. This leads to disruption of the normal transmission of information. Also, some drugs, such as LSD, act on receptors in the brain, causing unusual visual, auditory or tactile sensations.

3. Fever, dehydration and lack of oxygen

The reverse mechanism occurs at high temperatures. On the contrary, she increases brain activity, causing the brain not only to incorrectly process incoming information, but also to generate its own signals, which leads to hallucinations.

Dehydration, that is, loss of fluid, and hypoxia - lack of oxygen - lead to the emergence of visions according to a similar mechanism.

4. Migraine

In this case, hallucinations called aura. As with a fever, the brain generates additional signals, cortical activity increases, and areas responsible for the perception and evaluation of visual information may be affected.

5. Recovery after anesthesia

Some anesthetic drugs, such as propofol, influence for transmitting signals to brain, which temporarily affects the patient’s perception and can cause hallucinations during the period of awakening and recovery from anesthesia.

6. Severe pain or grief

Pain itself does not cause hallucinations, but the agony or stress it causes affects the perception of information in the brain. The same goes for grief—emotional pain—when the brain creates images, sounds, or other sensations to try to somehow cope with the situation. These hallucinations are temporary; they disappear as soon as the person receives adequate pain relief or, in the case of grief, accepts what happened.

7. Brain injuries

They cause physical changes in the structures of the organ, damage to its tissues and disrupt the normal functioning of neurons and neurotransmitters. This can lead to both temporary and chronic hallucinations if the area of ​​the brain is irreparably altered.

8. Sleep deprivation

During prolonged sleep deprivation, the brain works less efficiently, and the ability to process information correctly is reduced. This leads to hallucinations.

9. Infections

Some infections, such as malaria and syphilis, can be accompanied by hallucinations due to effects on the brain, or more precisely, tissue inflammation, which leads to disruption of signal transmission and changes in biochemical processes.

Fever and dehydration due to infections can also cause hallucinations.

What neurological diseases cause hallucinations?

These diseases somehow affect the brain's ability to process information, either slowing down the transmission of nerve impulses or, as in epilepsy, speeding it up. An aggravating factor is often the use of medications for the treatment of these diseases. The fact is that some drugs affect neurotransmitters - chemicals that transmit signals between neurons. A change in their level leads to a distortion of perception.

1. Parkinsonism

This disorder, which causes tremors in the hands, poor coordination, and changes in speech and writing, is associated with the degeneration of neurons that produce dopamine. It is the medications for Parkinsonism that most often lead to hallucinations, but the disease itself can provoke them. Approximately 20–40% of people with Parkinson's disease there are hallucinations or delusions.

2. Epilepsy

It is characterized by regular episodes of seizures. These seizures may vary in duration and intensity and may be accompanied by loss of consciousness, unusual sensations, and hallucinations. Hallucinations more often only olfactory. They arise due to damage to the temporal lobe of the brain.

3. Dementia

This is the general name for a whole group of neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease or dementia with Lewy bodies. Dementia affects cognitive functions: memory, education, orientation. Hallucinations occur due to disturbances in the structure of the brain.

4. Narcolepsy

This is a disease in which the regulation of sleep and wakefulness is disrupted. People with narcolepsy can spontaneously enter REM sleep during the day. It is in this phase that we see dreams, which in patients with narcolepsy turn into hallucinations and are perceived as real events.

What mental illnesses are accompanied by hallucinations?

The main cause of hallucinations in mental illness is abnormalities in the structure and activity of various areas of the brain. Some research indicate on the pathological functioning of the anterior cortex and limbic system, which may also be associated with hallucinations, but there is no clear data yet.

1. Schizophrenia and related disorders

This is the main disease defiant hallucinations. The mechanism of its occurrence is quite complex. It is believed that he connected with dysfunction of the dopamine system.

The most common are auditory hallucinations. The fact is that schizophrenia tied with disturbances in the processing of sound information, which leads to voices that have no real source.

This also includes subtypes of schizophrenia and related disorders: delusional, schizophreniform, schizotypal, short-term psychotic and schizoaffective.

2. Bipolar disorder

This is an alternation of manic and depressive states. During a manic episode, a person is exaggeratedly happy, energetic, and active. In a depressed state, he experiences deep depression, loss of interest in life, and fatigue. Hallucinations arise during severe episodes.

3. Severe depression with psychotic features

This is a special type of depressive illness with delusions or hallucinations. This disorder combines symptoms depression and psychosis: loss of interest in life, energy and joy accompanied by psychotic symptoms, including hallucinations (usually auditory) and delusions.

What medications cause hallucinations

Some antipsychotics—drugs used to treat mental disorders— can cause or contribute to hallucinations. This happens due to changes in activity in the cerebral cortex under the influence of certain components of the drug. Most often, such hallucinations occur in older people and disappear with drug withdrawal.

Hallucinations can also be caused by sleeping pills, antidepressants, antibiotics, antispasmodics, antiemetics and antiallergic drugs, and even pain medications, such as morphine or codeine. This occurs when there is an overdose of drugs.

What else causes hallucinations

This includes other conditions that somehow cause hallucinations, but do not belong to any one group.

1. Charles Bonnet syndrome

This is a condition in which a person vision deteriorates - that is, it is a physiological disease, not a mental one. The hallucinations that people with this syndrome typically see most often resemble patterns or lines. Less often - animals and distorted faces of people.

The exact cause is unknown, but the fact is that hallucinations most often occur in people with poor vision in insufficient lighting, may indicate that this is due to stimulation of the visual bark. This area of ​​the brain tries to “compensate” for lost information, and so it creates non-existent objects.

2. Liver failure

In this condition, the liver is unable to properly metabolize and remove toxins from the blood. This leads to the accumulation of neurotoxins, which “poison” the brain and cause changes in neural activity, which leads to hallucinations.

3. Kidney failure

Hallucinations due to kidney damage arise rarely. But those that do occur are caused by an imbalance of electrolytes: the level of potassium in the blood rises, and it affects the nervous system. The mechanism of accumulation of harmful substances may also play a role: even medications for kidney failure are quite toxic.

4. HIV/AIDS stage 3

Hallucinations in these diseases occur due to toxic effects medications. Also a virus Maybe directly affect the nervous system and lead to disorders such as encephalopathies that cause hallucinations.

5. Brain tumors

We are talking about neoplasms that either form in the brain or penetrate from other organs. Due to pressure on the brain structures that are responsible for processing information, hallucinations may begin.

What to do if you think you're hallucinating

If you suspect that hallucinations are not related to a hangover or high fever, you should immediately consult a physician. He will assess the situation and, perhaps, adjust drug therapy if you are already taking any medications that cause hallucinations.

Remember: hallucinations are dangerous not so much in themselves, but as a sign that something is wrong in the body. It's one thing for your pillow to feel ominous when you wake up. monster, and quite another thing is when hallucinations become a flag for the development of a schizophrenic disorder.