3803 upvotes, 9 direct replies (showing 9)
But it seems from their descriptions the hallucinations aren’t necessarily always clear, but that not wearing their glasses and things being blurry prompts their brain to hallucinate more
Comment by kleosailor at 04/02/2025 at 21:32 UTC
1118 upvotes, 4 direct replies
This makes sense, when we can see clearly our brain isn't tasked with 'filling in the blanks'. The brain is so interesting.
Comment by PsychiatryResident at 04/02/2025 at 21:56 UTC
76 upvotes, 1 direct replies
To add on to this sometimes psychiatry gets called in the hospital for delirious patients. Being elderly is one possible risk factor but a lot of the times the elderly person not having their glasses or a charged hearing aid contributes to hallucinating quite a bit, especially with an infection added on top of it. These are people with 0 psychiatric history.
Comment by pretentious-pansy at 04/02/2025 at 23:30 UTC
24 upvotes, 2 direct replies
My dad has hallucinations due to Lewy bodies and also has comically bad eye sight. (Like, only just about not legally blind.) And his brain just makes up whatever it wants.
Any vague shape like a bag on the floor turns into a dog, while a streetlamp at night turns into a person walking their dog. Shadows turn into dogs. Excluding random objects appearing, disappearing or moving around it’s mostly dogs.
He’s not paranoid and his visions don’t seem to bother him. They’re just sort of there
Comment by AlwaysBananas at 05/02/2025 at 04:25 UTC
11 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Not schizophrenic but schizoaffective. When I’m manic and psychotic at the same time I stop wearing my glasses because it makes it easier to “see god.” I don’t get visual hallucinations really, my minds eye just becomes hyper active and I interpret that as getting visions from the divine source. The part of my brain that’s supposed to say “hey, we’re just imagining what something could look like” stops working and I believe I’m seeing real visions, but it’s not like seeing out of my actual eyeballs. Taking my glasses off makes it easier to focus on that. It’s actually one of the key ways my wife knows it’s getting bad. When she catches me walking around the house without my glasses on a lot she knows it’s time to contact my doctor.
I do get auditory hallucinations though, they are indistinguishable from my ears actually hearing things.
Comment by LilPudz at 04/02/2025 at 22:05 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Damn I got learned today.
Comment by Additional-Future299 at 05/02/2025 at 13:22 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
It makes sense that blurry vision could affect how they perceive their hallucinations. When things aren't clear, it might heighten their imagination or distort their experiences even more
Comment by xXGhostrider163Xx at 05/02/2025 at 14:16 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
The mind tends to fill in the gaps or create more sensory stimuli when it perceives something out of the ordinary.
Comment by MimeGod at 05/02/2025 at 14:59 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Darn. That ruins my thought of, "If I take off my glasses and can still see it, it isn't real," if I were to have that issue.
Comment by aridcool at 05/02/2025 at 15:06 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I'm going to guess it is a lot like dreaming. Doesn't really matter if you are wearing glasses or not, that sort of awareness isn't what your mind is working on.