Question about things I’m experiencing

I have some questions about things I’ve been experiencing. I’ve been diagnosed with multiple mental disorders including PTSD and major depression with psychosis. I’ve been seeing a psychiatrist and have been following the treatment plan to a tee.

I have very brief visual hallucinations. They are more like illusions. I’ll briefly mistake something for something else. I mistook moonlight shining into my car through the trees as a rotting corpse. Leaves in a ditch drain was a rotting hand reaching out. Faces in family pictures looked at me with an evil grin. There were other things like breathing walls as well.

They were usually very brief. I had one longer hallucination, but I was on Ambien at the time and thought it might be a side effect like a waking dream.

Since I’ve been in treatment, things have been better, but last night I very briefly mistook a telephone poll for a zombie. I’m not depressed right now and was surprised with my initial diagnosis of major depression at the time because I didn’t feel severely depressed.

It’s normal to mistake something for something else, but when it happens, it’s always about something frightening. I’m going to talk to my doctor when I see him next week, but I’d appreciate your input. Thanks!

I just finished replying to your first post here on PC. As I wrote in my reply to that post, there's really nothing of any substance I can offer with regard to why the things you see are always frightening. I think discussing this with your pdoc is a good move.

I don't recall you mentioning if you also see a therapist. If not, the other thing to do might be to delve into this in therapy. I don't know how things work where you live, of course. But where I live about all psychiatrists do is to prescribe & monitor psych med's. Any & all therapy is left to mental health therapists. So, if that's the way things work where you live, while talking to your pdoc about what you're experiencing is certainly appropriate, it may or may not help you to get to the bottom of why the things you see are always frightening. For this you may need to delve into the experiences you're having with a skilled therapist.

One thing that I've come to understand, in reading about current research findings related to the human brain, is that much more of who we are, & what we do, is controlled by areas of the brain to which we have no conscious access than we might typically image. So perhaps, particularly since you mentioned having been diagnosed with PTSD, there are memories stored in non-conscious areas of your brain that are causing what you see to be frightening? Of course I don't really know. This is just conjecture on my part. But I do think the way to figure out what's going on may well involve delving into it at-length & in-depth in therapy.

Beyond that... the other thing that may help is simply to focus on doing things that increase your overall happiness & help you to find joy. Here are links to 6 articles, from PsychCentral's archives, that offer suggestions for how to do that:

15 Ways to Increase Your Happiness

15 Tips to Boost Your Well-Being and Happiness

12 Steps to Increase Your Happiness (Optimize Your Thinking-Feeling Habits!), 1 of 2

Timeless Wisdom & the Science of Happiness: To Change Your Life, Change Your Mind (Not Others…)

The Health Benefits of Journaling

https://psychcentral.com/blog/using-...o-reclaim-joy/

I don't know what the question is/was....

But I think it sounds like it's not a major hinderance or inconvenience for you. Am I right?

Even people without psychosis can experience hallucinations. They aren't really considered a problem until they get to the point where you can't tell what's real and what's not. Or if they last consistently over long periods of time.

I think it's good to tell your doctor about it... But if it's not really bothering you, like, preventing you from sleeping/working/bathing/doing every day tasks, I wouldn't make a big deal out of it...

The reason I say this is because some people who hallucinate regularly can be fine without medication and can function in their day to day lives... But some doctors automatically assume hallucinations = need medication. Which is NOT true. I've known a couple of people who hallucinate, but when introduced to medication is made them much much worse.

Definitely ask your doctor about it, but if it's not affecting your day to day life, you make sure to tell the doctor that!

I should’ve mentioned this in my original post: I have been in therapy for a couple years. It has been helpful, and I really like my therapist. I also have a service dog. She’s been really great for me, and I love her to bits!

My hallucinations don’t bother me too much at this point, but there was a time when they were much worse and bothered me quite a bit! I was afraid to be alone, and I took down all photos that were in my house. I’m on a low dose of Seroquel which seems to be helping. I haven’t hallucinated in awhile, but I guess I was worried that since I just had one that I might get back to that dark place I was in about a year ago. I’m also questioning my diagnosis a little because I don’t feel like my depression is that bad now.

Thanks for your responses!