Hallucinations are a worrying condition for anyone involved, both sufferers and bystanders. Some cases of mild hallucinations can be cured on their own at home. However, severe or chronic cases always require professional medical treatment.
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Part 1 of 3: Healing Yourself
Step 1. Learn the characteristics of hallucinations
Hallucinations can affect all five senses: the senses to see, hear, feel, smell, or touch. Hallucinations can be caused by a number of conditions, appear very real, and occur in conscious people.
- Most cases of hallucinations cause the sufferer to experience disorientation and fear although some hallucinations can also appear pleasant and uplifting.
- Hearing voices that are not real is a hallucination of the listener's senses. Seeing light, people, or objects that aren't really there is a common visual hallucination. The sensation of "insects" or other creatures crawling on the skin is a common hallucination of the sense of touch.
Step 2. Check body temperature
High fever can cause hallucinations of all levels, especially in children and the elderly. Even if you are neither a child nor an elderly person, a fever can still cause hallucinations. So take your body temperature.
- Hallucinations can occur when you have a fever over 38 degrees Celsius. However, hallucinations are more common when the fever is over 40 degrees Celsius. Whether accompanied by hallucinations or not, a fever that is more than 40 degrees Celsius should immediately seek professional medical attention.
- If you have a fever that can be cured on its own at home, take a fever reducer, such as ibuprofen or paracetamol. Drink plenty of fluids and take your temperature regularly.
Step 3. Get enough sleep
Mild to moderate hallucinations can be caused by severe sleep deprivation. Severe hallucinations are usually caused by something else, but can also result from a lack of sleep.
- The average adult needs 7-9 hours of sleep every night. If you're severely sleep deprived, you may need to sleep a few hours longer than that for a while until your body recovers.
- Sleeping during the day can disrupt regular sleep habits and trigger insomnia and hallucinations. If you don't have a regular bedtime, try to create a normal sleep pattern.
Step 4. Reduce stress
Anxiety can trigger mild to moderate hallucinations as well as exacerbate severe hallucinations caused by other things. Therefore, learning how to relieve mental and physical stress can help reduce the frequency and severity of hallucinations.
Reduce physical stress by keeping your body hydrated and well rested. Regular light to moderate exercise can also improve your overall health and relieve a variety of physical symptoms of stress, including mild hallucinations
Step 5. Know when to call the emergency department
If you can't tell the difference between reality and hallucinations, call the emergency department immediately.
- Consult a doctor if you experience frequent mild hallucinations as the disturbance may be due to an illness, especially if home remedies don't work either.
- If hallucinations are accompanied by severe symptoms, such as discolored lips and nails, chest pain, cold sweats, confusion, loss of consciousness, high fever, vomiting, irregular heartbeat, shortness of breath, injury, seizures, severe abdominal pain, or inappropriate behavior reasonable, immediately contact the emergency department.
Part 2 of 3: Helping Others
Step 1. Recognize the signs of hallucinations
Patients with hallucinations may not openly talk about the hallucinations that occur. If so, you should know how to recognize the less obvious signs of hallucinations.
- People with auditory hallucinations may appear oblivious to their surroundings and talk more to themselves. The person may be self-isolating or listening to music constantly to drown out the hallucinatory voices.
- People who are fixated on something you can't see may be experiencing visual hallucinations.
- Scratching or brushing something unseen may be a sign of tactile hallucinations. Pinching the nose indicates olfactory hallucinations. Spitting up food can be an indication of taste hallucinations.
Step 2. Stay calm
When helping someone who is experiencing hallucinations, it is important to remain calm at all times.
- Hallucinations can cause severe anxiety. So, the patient may have panicked. Additional unnecessary stress and panic will only make the situation worse.
- If someone you know has frequent hallucinations, discuss what happens when the person isn't hallucinating. Ask what hallucinations are most common and how you can help.
Step 3. Explain the truth
Calmly explain to the person who is hallucinating that you cannot see, hear, smell, feel, or touch the things the person is describing.
- Explain in a clear manner and do not criticize so as not to further aggravate the patient's condition.
- If the patient has mild to moderate hallucinations or has had hallucinations in the past, you may be able to tell the patient that the sensations he or she is experiencing are not real.
- However, patients who are hallucinating for the first time or who suffer from severe hallucinations may not be able to understand that the sensations experienced are only hallucinations. As a result, the patient may become angry if you do not trust him.
Step 4. Divert the patient's attention
Depending on the situation, distracting the patient by changing the subject or moving to another location may be helpful.
This method is effective, especially for treating mild to moderate hallucinations. However, people who experience severe hallucinations may not be convinced
Step 5. Encourage the patient to consult a doctor
If someone you know has frequent hallucinations, encourage them to consult a doctor or psychologist.
Discuss with the patient when he is not hallucinating. Talk about the severity of the hallucinations and everything you know about possible causes and treatments. However, discuss it in a supportive and loving manner; never judge
Step 6. Keep an eye on the situation
If it gets worse, hallucinations can threaten the safety of the patient and those around them.
- If the safety of the patient or those around him is threatened, immediately contact the emergency department.
- If the hallucinations are so severe that the patient cannot tell the difference between reality and fiction or are accompanied by severe physical symptoms, call the emergency department immediately.
Part 3 of 3: Using Medical Treatment
Step 1. Confirm the diagnosis and treat the cause of the hallucinations
Hallucinations are usually a symptom of certain mental disorders. However, some physiological disorders can also cause hallucinations. The only way to get rid of hallucinations long term is to treat the underlying cause.
- Mental disorders that can cause hallucinations include schizophrenia, schizoid or schizotypal personality disorder, psychotic depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and bipolar disorder.
- Physiological disorders that affect the central nervous system, such as brain tumors, delirium, dementia, epilepsy, stroke, and Parkinson's disease, can cause hallucinations.
- Certain infections, such as bladder or chest infections, can trigger hallucinations. Migraines can also cause hallucinations in some people.
- Alcohol or drugs can also cause hallucinations, especially if you drink too much or when you have withdrawal syndrome.
Step 2. Take antipsychotic medication
Antipsychotic drugs, also known as neuroleptic drugs, can cure hallucinations in most cases. This drug may be prescribed to treat hallucinations due to psychological or physiological disorders, especially when other treatments are unavailable or inadequate.
- Clozapine is an atypical neuroleptic drug commonly taken in doses of 6-50 mg per day, depending on the severity of the hallucinations. Increasing the dose should be done gradually so that fatigue does not occur. White blood cell tests should be done regularly while taking clozapine because this drug can cause a decrease in the white blood cell count to a life-threatening level.
- Quetiapine is an atypical neuroleptic drug that can be used to treat hallucinations. In most cases, this drug is generally less effective than clozapine, but is safe enough to treat most causes of hallucinations.
- Other common antipsychotic drugs include risperidone, aripiprazole, olanzapine, and ziprasidone. All of these drugs are generally acceptable for most patients, but may not be safe for patients with Parkinson's disease.
Step 3. Change the dosage of the prescription medication you are currently taking
Certain medications prescribed for other ailments can cause hallucinations in some people. This is common, especially in patients with Parkinson's disease.
- Even if you suspect certain medications are causing your hallucinations, never stop taking any medication without consulting your doctor first. Stopping the drug suddenly can cause various other complications.
- In patients with Parkinson's disease, amantadine and other anticholinergic drugs are usually the first drugs to be discontinued. If this does not help, the dopamine agonist is taken in lower doses or discontinued altogether.
- If reducing the dose or stopping the use of these drugs has no effect on the patient's hallucinations, the doctor may prescribe an antipsychotic medication. Antipsychotic drugs are also prescribed if a decrease in the dose of the drug causes Parkinson's symptoms to return or worsen.
Step 4. Follow a rehabilitation program if necessary
If you are addicted to alcohol or hallucinating drugs, join a rehab program that can help break your addiction.
- Cocaine, LSD, amphetamines, marijuana, heroin, ketamine, PCP, and ecstasy can cause hallucinations.
- Although drugs can cause hallucinations, stopping drug use suddenly also triggers hallucinations. However, hallucinations due to withdrawal syndrome can usually be overcome by taking antipsychotic drugs.
Step 5. Get regular therapy
Cognitive behavioral therapy, in particular, is effective in curing some people who often experience hallucinations, especially those caused by mental disorders.
This therapy examines and monitors the patient's perceptions and beliefs. By identifying psychological triggers, psychologists can develop strategies that allow patients to cope and reduce symptoms
Step 6. Join a support group
Both support groups and self-help groups reduced the frequency and severity of hallucinations, particularly auditory hallucinations caused by psychological triggers.
- Support groups provide a way to help patients position themselves firmly in the real world, thereby enabling patients to distinguish between hallucinations and reality.
- Self-help groups encourage patients to take responsibility for their hallucinations in a way that allows them to control and cope with the hallucinations.
