Types of Hallucinations and Delusions
*Possible Trigger Warning*
Hallucinations and delusions can be a very common symptom in schizophrenia, some types of bipolar and other related disorders. Sometimes they are also caused as side effects of certain medications. All and any experiences that a person feels are very valid as they can be distressing emotions
This list is not complete as there can be many more types of hallucinations, delusions and experiences
Types of Hallucinations
Hallucinations are sensory experiences that appear real but are created by our mind. They can affect all our 5 senses
Auditory hallucinations: This is hearing thing that are not there. We might hear someone speaking to us or telling us to do certain things. It can include hearing multiple voices, sometimes whispering and murmuring or loud tones
Visual hallucinations: This is seeing things that are not there. It involves seeing objects, shadows, deformed humanoid looking figures, or people who are not there. It can also involve seeing objects with the wrong shape or seeing things moving in ways they usually do not. Sometimes it can look like flashes of light or brightly colored spots. Hallucinating dead loved ones, friends or other people we knew can be particularly distressing. Sometimes our perception may be altered which can make it harder to judge distance, making it difficult to walk
Olfactory hallucinations: This affects sense of smell. It might seem that the odor is coming from our own body or somewhere else. We might smell an unpleasant odor or sometimes pleasant scents like those of flowers. This can be particularly dangerous if a person believes they are being poisoned and refrain from eating. If the person believes that their insides are rotting, they may hallucinate that smell
Gustatory hallucinations: They involve a sense of taste. These tastes are often strange or unpleasant
Tactile or somatic hallucinations: This involves feeling of touch or movement in our body. It might feel that bugs are crawling on our skin or that our internal organs are moving around. It might also feel that someone is touching our body when no one is. The person may experience being tickled or a blast of cold air or hot air on our face that is not there
Types of Auditory Hallucinations
Auditory hallucinations are false perceptions of sound. They do not seem to have any real origin in the outside world and are perceived to be separate from the person’s mental processes
Nonsensical voices: These voices can speak about nonsensical things or sentences that do not make complete sense. They have an annoying quality and can be extremely distracting
Persecutory voices: These voices are the most common. They may be constantly critical of the person, sometimes ridiculing them or criticizing them in very brutal ways. Sometimes we hear them commenting on every little action or thought we carry out. This can lead to very low self esteem
Command hallucinations: The voices gives the person directions or tasks to do
Threatening voices: Some people hear persuasive, repetitive voices that they believe are coming from a secret organization
Types of Delusions
Delusions are unshakable belief in something that is not true or based in reality. This does not mean they are completely unreal. They usually have some basis in reality. For example delusions of being followed, poisoned or deceived, to name a few. These delusions usually involve mistaken perceptions or experiences
Persecutory: This is when the person believes that there is a person, group, or organization who are mistreating or harming them despite contradictory evidence. They might believe that they are being spied on. In these cases, it is not uncommon for person to make repeated complaints to legal authorities
Somatic: The person believes that they have a physical defect or medical problem. They may also develop tactile hallucinations and feel the sensation of insects or parasites crawling over their skin
Erotomanic: The person believes that another person, often someone important or famous, is in love with them. They might try to contact that person which can lead to stress. The person might believe that a famous actor or actress on the TV is communicating with them through secret hand gestures
Mixed or unspecified: This is a mixture of many categories of delusions
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The following questions are optional
Have you experienced any type of hallucinations or delusions?
What helps you cope?
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@hillsideblues
Very informative! Thank you so much for this!💙🦋
I am glad that you liked it!
thank you for this post it helps a lot
@DistortionHeart I am really glad that it helps! ❤️ I found it helpful too and it helped me understand some things
Very cool!
Alright..
@hillsideblues In all honesty, I'm not certain if some of what happens would be considered hallucinations or not. I do see shadows and people at times. Mostly from the corner of my eye. Or it looks as though someone has walked past a doorway. There are times when I smell something but I'm never quite sure if I'm actually smelling it. I've also had times when it feels as though I'm being touched or my skin crawls.
@mytwistedsoul It can be quite confusing. Sometimes putting labels on what we feel and categorizing them can help us manage and cope. Other times those labels can be confusing too. I think how we feel and what we experience is important, despite the category it would fit in and all your experiences are valid ❤️
It can be very startling to see shadows and people. Things moving from the corner of the eye happens here too. I think for me it has the element that I get hypervigiliant or I am hypervigiliant at those times. Do you feel similar?
Sensation of smells and touch can be common under stress. I have touch sensations that are linked to some past memories. I think the way the mind works is so complex
@hillsideblues Thank you, you're right. I believe these labels are meant to put us all in tidy little boxes. Which is slightly amusing, because once you have the label, they procede to tell you that everything is on a spectrum.
I suppose some of it could be hypervigilance. There is always some degree of it some where. When I saw the person last night though, I didn't think I was. But things have been more stressed here.
Stress does have a way of causing so many other issues. Some times those touch sensations are related to past memories here too. I'm sorry you have to deal with these too.
Thank you for your reply.
@mytwistedsoul I understand about the labels. Some diagnoses are like where you have to have certain amount of symptoms in certain amount of time and then you can be placed in certain boxes
With hypervigiliance, I think sometimes we do not realize how much hypervigiliant we are feeling sometimes. I hope things eases down for you 
Very informative!
Thank you for doing all this research and sharing your findings with us🙂
@Azalea98 I am really glad that you found it informative!
Thank you! A post like this is greately needed in order to spread more awareness about these symptoms that so many people including myself suffer from in silence. The more we talk about hallucinations and delusions the more comfortable others may be around us as we share a fear of each other on both sides of the coin really. They may fear what they don't understand and I fear the rejection from others if (or when) they find out about my schizophrenia.
I would like to answer these optional questions to contribute to this discussion. Feel free to ask me further to clarify. Never fear questioning what you don't understand as misunderstandings hurt us both.
Have you experienced any type of hallucinations or delusions?
Yes, with my diagnosis of schizophrenia comes many different types of hallucinations and delusions. At some point I've had majority of my senses impacted along with my thinking. When I was told about my diagnosis I felt a mixture of emotions. No one believed me or in me so I felt hopeless. It wasn't always like this, I was capable of love and other feelings, but having my entire reality questioned has made me become empty inside. There are a lot of details I'm unable to add here due to it's graphic nature but some of my hallucinations involve an abusive love interest and his group of friends. They hide everywhere. I can hear their breathing and feel their eyes on me. They describe what I am doing, comment about me and my choices. They often describe violent acts and tell me I should act this way. Sneaking up behind me and decieving me. One of the scariest experiences was being threatened with a device inside of me.
What helps you cope?
Although nothing really helps me very much, I've been learning more about schizophrenia. Listening to people and relating to their experience has made me feel less alone. We may share similar symptoms but everyone's experience blends together in a unique way. With this I'm more able to see more people as geniune and attempt to disprove my sense of distrust towards them and myself. Learning that these are hallucinations or delusions also has helped me move forward. It is still tough, I break down all the time. It will never be easy but I am working towards self compassion.
As a final note I would like to include that people living with hallucinations and delusions are just like everyone else despite it sometimes not making sense to you or others. It may even sound silly or bizzare. You may wonder how anyone could believe in something so obviously unreal. But that's their reality - It's as real as your life is right now. Never tease someone over a belief you may find absurd as this person's experience is no joke. Imagine living your life doing what you believed made sense to find out none of that was real to anyone else. It is shocking to say the least. Even if you dislike them, please be mindful of others to the best of your ability. Acceptance is different than caring. I just felt this small rant was needed. Thank you for reading all of this as it took me awhile to collect myself to write.
@ShadowDance I am glad that you liked the post. I do think awareness on mental health really is needed. I was diagnosed with schizophrenia and the experiences can really be isolating at times. I do agree that the more we talk about hallucinations, delusions and other experiences, the more awareness and understanding can be raised. It can make some people more comfortable to be around those who experience hallucinations or delusions or psychosis, because at the end we all are just humans and trying our best to cope
It can be isolating when no one believes you and can make us doubt ourselves sometimes. Thank you for sharing some of your experiencess here and and describing some of your hallucinations. I think that is incredibly brave of you to talk about them. It is hard when we often question our reality and the lines between what is real and not real seems blurred sometimes. I believe that even if a certain hallucination is not actually "real" to someone else, it is still very real to the person experiencing them. To the person experiencing them, it is their reality even if it is different to someone eles's and all their feelings and emotions regarding it are very valid. It is never acceptable to ridicule someone on their experiences and on what they are going through
I am glad that you are learning more about schizophrenia. Here it helps me to cope by learning more about it and trying to understand why I feel and experience the things that I do. Thank you for replying and helping to raise more awareness. I am glad that you are working towards self compassion. You are deserving of support and acceptance
I don’t get hallucinations all the time but when I do it’s like shadows and people where they shouldn’t be, it’s like an expectation I have that someone is there watching me and I look and some dark figure will be there. Which makes me even more paranoid to even look at times. I also feel like people are almost touching me and grabbing me like this static electricity feeling when I get myself really worked up. Recently though on a smaller scale I have been feeling like hairs touching all over me that aren’t there. I also have these delusions that some one is trying to get to me to do something bad or hurt me and sometimes it melts over into my loved ones being the people who are after me. As for hearing things it’s really confusing for me because I have always had an inner voice, although since I have been diagnosed that voice has become less and less like myself. It says more dangerous things and self harm things. I also get this feeling that a million people are talking at once and I can’t hear anything even though no one is talking at all.
@Theprincess666 Thank you for sharing with us here ❤️
I think seeing shadows can be very startling. They can be for me sometimes. Alot of people seem to experience seeing them
Seeing people where they should not be and feeling that someone is there watching us, are very scary feelings. It makes sense that they give paranoid thoughts too
Those touch feelings of people touching you, static electricity and hair can be very upsetting and feel like a violation. I try touching my arms and face by myself when it feels like people are touching me
It is very confusing when the delusions are about loved ones being the one after us. It can be real scare even if the thoughts are delusional. Your feelings are very valid
Voices telling to do things can be very upsetting and distracting *hugs for you if that is ok* ❤️
