Am I The Only One Who Hallucinates?

[Immora29]

I am wondering... Am I the only one who Hear and see things.. Is this normal for people with PTSD? I feel like im losing my mind.

Immora

[canucklady]

Hello, not sure if it is normal, but when I have flashback, I do hear things and see things. I guess it depends on what you are hearing. For me it is all related to trauma, so doctor says that is PTSD related, if I were hearing voices coming from out of the blue, then she would be saying it was schizoprenia or something. I dont know.

Maybe not much help, but yes, I do hear things

[Jim]

Immora, my niece Evie (batgirl) sees and hears things. Not only flashbacks. Has full blown visual and auditory hallucinations when stressed. Sees things, people, strange objects and so on. Hears the voice of her father (who tried to kill her), other's voices, usually those deceased. Don't believe it's schizophrenia. I have a nephew with that disorder, this presents quite differently. And. Evie was never like this before her trauma.

Jim.

[Portabella]

I don't know how to answer this. I think that when I go through stress or anxiety I am more apt to hear every sound and freak from it. As far as hearing other than that, there are times that I can hear my inner voice. When halfway asleep or when in the tub is when I can suffer mental nausea for lack of better words. I think mental nausea=flashbacks. Not sure

[veiled]

Normally if I am just way too exhausted I have seen things. But what I experience are normally stress related/flashback. If I get overly stressed I smell fires burning.

[Jim]

Not a fan of labels, but perhaps it bears mentioning here - Evie's official diagnosis - severe chronic PTSD-SP. SP stands for "secondary psychosis". Whether that is simply a severe form of flashbacks that doctors are misdiagnosing as psychosis, or actual psychosis, not certain. However. With some research my wife and I have discovered that labels for PTSD also include "with or without psychosis". Our niece certainly has with.

Jim.

[Portabella]

Veiled, OMG!!! I smell burnt almonds, if its a severe nightmare, I smell it even on my skin and clothes. Wow!!!!

[Immora29]

Let me ask you this.. Have you ever been in the middle of.. umm how can I put this without getting banned..Sexual intercourse and looked at your partner and his or her face change shape, size, and color. Basically, I get a quick flashback of my attacker, but afterwards, I don't remember anything. Also does anyone ever revert to a child during the attacks. I do all the time. And I find it hard for me to show any kind of love to my fiancee'.

[veiled]

It does happen and you can revert emotionally to that time or incident. My doctor told me I was having flashbacks during sex. Err... Talk about your husband cooling things down fast! We still don't do much but I can now be with him. It takes a long time healing and working towards that. Tell your partner would be my advice and work on it in therapy with him. It helped us a lot and my husband was extremely kind and understanding about it.

I have had a moment where I relived a childhood moment but it was brief and scary. But nothing bad happened. Others here who have reverted can tell you not all flashbacks when you are trying to heal is not always a bad thing or going to something that is horrible. It is weird how the brain gets wired that way. But nothing to fear while certainly not fun. Therapy can help and facing all you know and the emotions during those times.

[hodge]

Let me ask you this.. Have you ever been in the middle of.. umm how can I put this without getting banned..Sexual intercourse and looked at your partner and his or her face change shape, size, and color. Basically, I get a quick flashback of my attacker, but afterwards, I don't remember anything. Also does anyone ever revert to a child during the attacks. I do all the time. And I find it hard for me to show any kind of love to my fiancee'.

OMG, this has happened to me, too. Thankfully, I haven't seen my husband's face change, but with previous partners, I did, not just during sex, but also just when in bed.

I've also gone through days where I felt like a child again. I think of these as, like, emotional flashbacks, where I experience things as a child, not the adult I am. Talk about scary. I had one experience like this in a public place. That was the situation that finally made me cave in to my therapist's repeated suggestions about medication.

[becvan]

Not that I like to talk about this but.. I have bugs crawling on me everynight when I lay down to go to bed. Bugs that aren't there. I'm very phobic of bugs and I will feel them all over me and my bed. This has been going on for... *thinks*... years? I have to get up and turn on the light and check my bed and myself numerous times, while telling myself it's all in my head. Not winning this one let me tell you.

Other than that, when I get really tired, over stressed, or overwhelmed, I see, hear and smell shit that ain't there, all the time. Normal for us with PTSD.

(had the awful face change in bed myself.. that one really sucks)

bec

[hodge]

Isshy, Bec! Yuck! That bug thing sounds so nasty. I'm sorry you've experienced the face change thing, too. I only learned in the last day that this kind of thing is normal for us with ptds. Sucks big time!