thank you all so much for your replies .

although i'm sad that you all go through this too, it's a relief to know that this really can be associated with ptsd. it's probably been going on for 10 or more years for me, but it's only recently that i told pdoc about it, and i guess telling someone else has made me feel like it's something serious and 'real' - something that can't be ignored.

hugsneeded - because my hallucinations are completely random (and sometimes quite bizarre to the point of being funny e.g., the time i thought i had a bell attached to the back of my eyeball, so every time i moved my eyes the bell was making ringing sounds), it's just something that i deal with. when it gets upsetting i am able to take meds to calm me down, and also work on the stress in my life that's making me have hallucinations e.g., if it's uni work that's due - i try to deal with that, so the hallucinations go away quicker.

what you go through sounds terrifying . i'm glad you have a T to help you out.

mousey - yes, i have had similar experiences too. it's only after a few of those that i started realising that some things i took quite for granted were things other ppl weren't aware of. it's a bit sucky, but now whenever something 'weird' happens, i do find myself checking to see if other ppl are reacting too, just so i know if it's real or not.

colleen - thank you for sharing . i hope your stressors can die down soon, so you don't have the additional stress of hearing/seeing stuff! do you get any support at all when this happens? like you, i am mostly able to ignore it, but every now and again something consistently grabs my attention, and i find that very frustrating.

just wanted to reiterate - thank you all so much for sharing. i was actually a bit worried about posting this, in case i came back and found no one else could relate .