PTSD is one of the common mental health disorders that occur when a person is a victim of or witnesses a traumatic event. It is most typically linked to symptoms such as flashbacks, nightmares, hypervigilance, and emotional paralysis. Now, there is another side of PTSD, which is, in fact, as severe as other symptoms, but people do not talk about it very often. It is hallucinations.
Here, you will learn all about PTSD and hallucinations, preoccupying themselves with why, how, and how exactly they impact those who have to deal with it. We will also briefly review how hallucinations are different from flashbacks, can PTSD make you hallucinate, does PTSD cause hallucinations, and other symptoms that pertain to PTSD, hence becoming a new voice on a little-explored aspect of trauma.
What Are Hallucinations?
A hallucination is an event perceived by the senses, including seeing, hearing, and feeling things that do not exist. They can be in the form of any five senses: sight, sound, smell, tongue, and touch. For instance, they are hearing, seeing, or feeling things that are not there, hearing voices of people who are not there, seeing something that does not exist, or even feeling sensations such as the experience of bugs crawling on the skin when nothing is there.
Commonly, the word hallucination refers to schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, but it can also refer to PTSD. Although much less frequent than flashbacks or intrusive thoughts, hallucinations are still a potentially prominent feature of hallucinations PTSD for some clients.
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The Connection Between PTSD And Hallucinations
Now, let’s learn how PTSD can cause hallucinations. After reviewing the nature of trauma, people will have a better understanding of how it works on the brain and our body. Trauma affects memory centers, particularly those involving emotion and the perception of the brain. In the case of a traumatic event, the memory of the traumatic event receives inadequate processing from the brain. Thus, their mind can fragment what happened and play it back in disturbing ways.
People with PTSD get this through flashbacks or intrusive recollection, which is a replay of the traumatic event. But in some circumstances, they may elaborate these memories in the mind, causing a hallucination. These are referable to hearing and visual hallucinations as well as somatogram symptoms that are directly connected with the traumatic circumstances.
How Hallucinations Manifest In PTSD
PTSD and hallucinations are closely related to the trauma that an individual undergoes. For example:
- Auditory Hallucinations: A person may hear their perpetrator or hear a gun, shot, loud bang, or shriek. These auditory hallucinations are more often than not distressing, and as such, the individual feels like they are going through the nightmare over and over again.
- Visual Hallucinations: For some, their traumatic event is relieved in front of them as if it were a flashback, but in this case, there are other features of ‘unreality.’ For instance, they may hear voices that aren’t there or even feel that objects are moving or changing shape in a way that the patient screams at them.
- Tactile Hallucinations: This type of hallucination means thinking that one is touching something or feeling like a person’s hand is on them or being shackled. This is of particular prevalence in victims of either physical or sexual abuse.
- Olfactory and Gustatory Hallucinations: This is somewhat less frequent, but the person with PTSD might experience smells or flavors associated with the traumatic event: smoke, metallic taste connected to blood, etc.
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Hallucinations Vs. Flashbacks: What’s The Difference?
Hallucinations and flashbacks are important to be defined separately because although the first one may be observed in people with PTSD, the second one does not necessarily mean this diagnosis.
- Flashbacks: These are the actual repeating of the traumatic event in the patient’s mind but in a very real and realistic manner. People who experience flashbacks feel like they are there in the evil time when they were being abused, and they visualize everything with great detail. Flashbacks are more like replays, and the person gets physical responses due to them, such as sweating, heart palpitations, shaking, etc.
- Hallucinations: Schizophrenic symptoms, on the other hand, are false perceptions, whereas hallucinations are sensory dysfunctions that happen without a prompt from memory. They may include things one can do today, such as seeing something that does not exist but has something to do with the trauma. Sometimes, the person understands that what he sees or hears is not real, but this does not shelter them from fear and confusion.
Hallucinations are generally more distressing than flashbacks in that hallucinations phase the patient’s break from reality as compared to the reliving of an event in flashbacks.
Why do Hallucinations happen in PTSD?
There are several possible reasons for developing hallucinations in those diagnosed with PTSD. These include:
- Extreme Stress: Chronic stress in moderation may drastically affect how the human brain interprets reality. It is argued that patients with PTSD are likely to have increased levels of anxiety; in other words, they may be hypervigilant and prone to hallucination. It may also overburden the brain and thus create sensory distortions.
- Sleep Deprivation: Thus, people with PTSD often have problems with sleep. They cannot sleep at all, or they have nightmares. People can experience hallucinations, and they manifest in the auditory form, as well as in the visual form, in case of lack of sleep. When the brain is rested, it is less likely to misinterpret the sensory information going in and around it.
- Co-occurring Mental Health Conditions: It is also estimated that people with PTSD will have other problems with mental health, such as depression, schizophrenia, anxiety, or substance abuse. However, some of these conditions can precipitate hallucinations. For example, a person with PTSD and major depressive disorder or dissociative disorder identity may be more likely to develop hallucinations.
- Dissociation: Detachment is much considered in post-traumatic stress disorder because of dissociation. In dissociation, the individual may feel detached from the environment, emotion, or himself. As with most pathological symptoms, if extreme, dissociation may result in hallucinations as the brain attempts to reconcile the disconnect.
PTSD and Psychosis: A Potential Overlap
Despite this, hallucinations are not considered psychotic, and there is a relationship between PTSD and psychosis. Indeed, a few people with PTSD can meet the criteria of PTSD with secondary psychotic features. This means that, together with traditional symptoms of PTSD, they also have psychotic symptoms, such as hallucinations or delusions.
Scholars point out that those who have shifted to psychotic features after PTSD have been known to have been exposed to severe trauma, including sexual assault, warfare, or serious accidents. The severity of their trauma can cause dissociative symptoms, resulting in hallucinations and other psychotic symptoms.
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How To Manage PTSD-Related Hallucinations?
If you or someone you know is suffering from hallucinations due to PTSD, it is always important to consult a mental health professional. In general, for cases of PTSD-related hallucinations, the recommended therapy includes talking therapy, medication, and other measures used independently.
- Therapy: PTSD is common and is usually treated by a type of therapy known as cognitive behavioral therapy, with a specialization known as Trauma-Focused CBT. Healing from a mental illness means going for this type of therapy because it enables the sufferer to work through an experience or thought that has caused trauma, to change an unfavorable way of thinking that is damaging to their health, and to learn constructive ways of handling stress and pain. The therapy can also work with hallucinations to enable a person to note when they are having a hallucination and learn how to cope with the resulting fear or confusion.
- Medication: Some medications that may be used as PTSD hallucination treatment include SSRIs or antipsychotics to help control hallucinations. Such drugs can control mood swings and anxiety and eliminate insomnia and ADHD signs, which can contribute towards the reduction of either or both of the hallucinations.
- Grounding Techniques: Cognitive strategies are activities that can be used to assist a person engage with reality to manage a stressful situation leading to psychosis. If a person is hallucinating, then exercises such as breathing, counting, perceiving things physically around them, or rubbing the surface with ice can help him come back to reality and minimize the hallucination.
- Sleep Hygiene: Having better sleeping habits reduces hallucinations brought about by sleep deprivation. There is hope, however, if one will practice good sleep hygiene: going to bed and waking up at the same time every day, having a specific sleep ritual, and avoiding stimulant foods like caffeinated items for several hours before bedtime.
Concluding Remarks!
Hallucinations may be of any kind: touch, gustatory, olfactory, auditory, or visual, and they are usually associated with some trauma. Hallucinations should be distinguished from flashes since the first describes sensations unrelated to memory replay. The following are likely to be the reasons why hallucinations occur with PTSD, extreme stress, lack of sleep, and other mental illness disorders. Discussing these symptoms with health professionals, getting therapy, taking medicine, and using different techniques to stabilize the state is important. So, if you are experiencing hallucinations due to PTSD, then now is the ideal time for you to get in touch with telehealth mental health services at Solid Foundation Psychiatry today!