Clear visual hallucinations = psychosis?

So, I'm having visual hallucinations about CATS. I know they aren't real, since they usually lurk in places where I know cats don't exist. For example, my boyfriend's apartment, he's not allowed to have pets, sit under the seats in buses, sometimes they walk upwards on walls, walk through walls.. Usually they do weird things like that so I know they're not real.

I'm not particularly tired. I've been seeing these kitties since.. Hmm.. August? And within these 3 months, my pattern of sleeping has varied a lot.. But I've had too little sleep only a few times.

Also, I'm not bothered by these hallucinations. Some kitties are a bit creepy since they appear suddenly, but usually stay in sight. They do not follow me if I go away, mostly they act like regular cats but do the occasional weird thing every once in a while.

I'm being treated for bipolar disorder, taking lithium and citalopram (Celexa) and I most certainly do not feel psychotic. Do hallucinations mean that you're psychotic? Or is this something I should discuss with my doctor?

Any input will be appreciated. :-) Many thanks in advance!

Katie, you're not the only one :-)

http://rainesdays.blogspot.com/2007/...tory-cats.html

Check out FAQ 3.8? http://www.pendulum.org/faq.html

Ooh that was a fun blog post :-D That pretty much made up my day!

And thanks for the FAQ link! I've looked for one like that for AGES! I'm glad you posted it.

Did you read her other blog page she referred to?

http://rainesdays.blogspot.com/2007/...-cat-scan.html

Well, I read that now. Doesn't sound too good. The nurse I'm seeing told she'll talk to a pdoc about it and call me if immediate action is needed. Hehe she was convincing me it's not "normal" to see things that aren't there. And I wasn't even trying to imply that.. Just that the kitties weren't bothering me.

Ah, mental health professionals..

It's not "normal" to feel as we feel either :-) Hey, I guess if one could literally pick symptoms (without the unconscious getting in the way) seeing nonexistant cats wouldn't be all that bad a choice?

Haha no, not at all! Compared to all those freaky demons and spirits some folks write about.. The kitties can dwell in my eyesight all they want!

Okay, this is getting weird. One of these cats communicates with me by exchanging thought. And I can make questions and it answers. I don't hear its voice, but it's kind of like a thought inside my head.

And it accuses me of being cruel towards a few friends I had to drop from my life. For now, I'm trying to rationalise. Better try to contact the nurse tomorrow and ask what to do.. While I still can.. Very scary and not nice at all.

Oh, Katie :-( I hope it's something like the other woman has that can be "fixed" with a change of meds or something. Sorry you have to be scared.

I'll talk to you; I don't care how many cats say bad things to/about you! :-)

Thank you Perna It's good to know there are people these evil cats cannot reach!

I hope it's something like that too. And I guess most likely it is.. Nowadays almost every condition can be medicated I guess?

Way to go nurse. Never there when needed.

Oh well.. Tomorrow's another day. They better give me Valium, I could cope with the cat's verbal (or should I say telepathic) abuse with it. It's kinda hard not to care when he's actually right. Sometimes I tell him off but usually he doesn't listen.

If only he was funny like Salem. But no. I get a nasty, name-calling, quarrelsome cat. I don't get why he follows me everywhere if he doesn't like me. :/

If he's right, agree with him and he won't have anything more to say? You don't have to "do" what he says, just agree with it, LOL. Pleasantness always trumps nasty, name-calling, quarrelsome pe. . . er, cats.

What happened with the nurse? I'd consider it a bit of an emergency and have her paged or whatever?

That was a good idea.. but unfortunately the cat likes to keep on talking. Oh well. I've been pretty good at ignoring, though sometimes I lose my nerves.

I got a hold of the nurse on Friday, will be seeing her tomorrow. Apparently she needs more insight on the situation. Which is perfectly fine, just as long as it gets fixed eventually.

You haven't been reading Garth Nix's The Abhorsen Trilogy by any chance have you? :-) It has a nasty "cat" like that (that also isn't a cat but an "elemental" thing of fire or darkness or something ugly like that that's intent on incorporating or extinguishing the person it's bound to serve, LOL)

No, I haven't, though I do read a lot. It sounds interesting though, gonna have to try and find it at the library. Thanks for the tip!

So, did you see the nurse? Was she at all helpful?

I saw the Trilogy set at my library today (was thinking of giving my set to them, I just finished it last night). It was under Science Fiction. http://www.amazon.com/Abhorsen-Trilo.../dp/0060734191

I had a "group" of men in my head being all grumpy :-) and when I complained to my therapist she said, "Tell them I don't think they exist" and that really startled me. She was a tiny Filippino woman and I could just picture these guys attacking me (the messenger) for saying that to them and the whole range of fantasy situations and imagined reactions made me laugh but also made them go away. I still smile when I think of it.

Yep, I saw her and the pdoc who, strangely, hasn't even met me (but I guess it works that way too since the nurse tells her what the deal is) put me on Seroquel. Luckily it doesn't take long until the cats disappear, I heard

That indeed sounds like a funny scenario. Did they ever consider attacking the therapist? Yeah... my cats don't do that, either.

Hope the Seroquel works for you quickly. Did you name the nasty cat? :-)

Nah, never wanted to attack the therapist. Once right after she told me she was going away for 6 weeks, when I left the session I saw her car in the parking lot and had a fantasy of slashing her tires :-)

The nasty cat? I just call him The Witch Kitty, because he looks like one And just kitty if they're nice and/or don't talk. Nothing too creative, but it works. (Sometimes it's good for some qualified few to know which cats are in sight )

Slashing her tires in order to sabotage her vacation? That is evil

I started laughing when I realized what I'd thought; it's so not me. Actually, to get even with her for going away; she is Philippino so went every year back East for 6-8 weeks at a time, sometimes a couple times a year. Once she was away several weeks because she had a wedding to attend in Bangkok and I started singing Murray Head's "One Night in Bangkok" to her (she'd never heard it :-) and now associate that song with her.

Yeah, I guess Filipinos like to stay close to their families even when they're living abroad. My mother's originally from The Philippines, but traveled to Finland in the end of 80s. I don't think she's very in touch with her family, just her sisters and brothers.

It's funny how you see her traveling "back East" all the way from Maryland though to me it seems it's quicker to go to the west?

I live near Washington, D.C. and it's 4800 km across country to California :-) I guess she does go that way though but it's the "Far East" in US terms so I suppose I didn't think about that, LOL. Thanks for reminding me. We're so "isolated" here in our own area that I think we get into a lot of our national troubles because we don't live cheek-by-jowl :-) with other nations and have to learn to speak other languages or get along with anyone else and we get kind of arrogant in our ignorance and wealth. I was part of a university program last semester where I had to represent Venezuela/Hugo Chavez and that was an "education" all on its own! LOL I work hard now not to take anything for granted and like I understand since I'm in this "backwater" country :-) Despite our freedoms, we don't really get much news because what's "important" or interesting enough to be reported doesn't usually have anything to do with the rest of the world, only ourselves. I couldn't even have told you where Venezuela was (other than South America :-) before I took the course nor could I have named more than about 4-5 other South American countries and I certainly couldn't have told you where they were on a map. At the end of the class I had a children's 50 piece jigsaw puzzle of Central and South America I did while the professor was doing his last lecture :-) and it still took me an hour and a half to put together!

I guess the reason why the news usually concern the local matters because it's "kind of pointless" to discuss the matters of other countries unless it involves your country. I'm not saying I don't believe those aren't important but in general opinion I suppose they do, however, broadcast news about global environmental matters, global warming for example, at least?

I personally am anti-political. The system is flawed here, in the bigger countries (Greetings to Russia ;D), and the European Union is trying to be the next U.S. But we anti-politicals, have nobody to speak for ourselves, nobody to vote for (not that I would), just protesting. And that is such a futile attempt at making a difference.

Hehe right now I couldn't tell where Venezuela is, either, except for guessing something like near Argentina? Heh. Did you have the puzzle with you to help locating Venezuela or just to get a picture of the continent?

The puzzle had a picture on its top of the whole of Central and South America and I knew where Venezuela was by then but it was very funny because I lost a lot of time thinking North and South America are directly above/below each other and they're not. So, I knew Mexico was directly below all of the US and tried to put Chile below the Yucatan there and there's whole bunches of Pacific Ocean there instead. Then, of course, since everything in South America is shifted East of Central America, I couldn't get my head to work right and was thinking since it was "East" it must be the Atlantic Ocean so I was all turned around. The map makers had spelled "Chile" horizontally instead of vertically, like the country is, so I was trying to put it across the bottom where Brazil is instead of along the west coast; I was a mess!

Haha all that academic stuff makes me grateful for the fact I don't have to attend school in a few months. Whew.

I see your avatar changes quite frequently. Are those just images off random websites or do you make them yourself?