25 upvotes, 2 direct replies (showing 2)
im not schizophrenic but i have hallucinated before, both from sleep deprivation/extreme paranoia and withdrawal from psychoactive medication and hallucinations dont work intuitively, psychosis is not something you could navigate logically, it just kind of happens to you and you do your best to get through it.
for me personally, it being a temporary experience was beneficial for me and my understanding of insanity and its nature. it helped me realize people who are regarded as insane or whatever are dealing with something that is completely unmanageable, its something you absolutely need help with, you cant just figure it out.
in my experience the hallucinations were never clear in the first place, maybe this is a result of my not actually being schizophrenic or having a mild experience but i was still able to tell that nothing was actually there, my brain was just playing tricks on me, i heard things that werent there, i saw things that werent there, these things werent even always discernable as a specific thing, sleep deprivation in particular would make me see bats a lot, a bat would just fly from one corner of the room to the other in my periphery and no longer be there. once i was stranded in the woods and i started seeing dinosaurs lurking around wanting to eat me and like swat teams descending from the tree tops to come arrest me, i was salient enough to know that this wasnt actually happening but what you know in these moments is worthless, what you are experiencing is more real than your ability to reassure yourself. during the withdrawal i actually heard what i would describe as the voice of a demon screaming "KILL THEM" like super loudly in my ear. if i didnt know i was hallucinating because i was withdrawing from medication i would have fucking shit myself. it was SO LOUD and real to me at the time but instead i just said "i will get through this and it will stop." and it did. some people arent so lucky as to have things go away, i legitimately cannot imagine how people tolerate living their life like that, its just horrific.
so hopefully that in some way helps add insight. i would imagine eyesight wouldnt be a determining factor at all, sometimes things are blurry, sometimes they arent.
Comment by Fantastic-Ad7602 at 05/02/2025 at 00:05 UTC
6 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Oh boy, reading all of these comments and yours specifically I got the chills remembering that one (of many) times I hit a joint and got dragged to a mental hell. At the time I lived in a neighborhood where kids played on the street, their cheerful noises turned into agonizing voices, asking for help, scheming horrible things. I was convinced that a guy and his gang was at the door to get me (that week I asked a girl from the neighborhood out without knowing if she was in a relationship before), i got dressed so fast and was ready to exit from the backdoor and jump into neighbors property. I was so terrified, everything and everyone was evil. My mother was at home in this moment and even she was evil, I could see every little of her flaws. It went away after I waited 30min for my older brother to come and pick me up and drive me far away from that place. I was never a religious man, but that thing made me turn to religion for quite some time, looking for explanation. I'm still not spiritual as I wish I would be, but today I live in a different place and don't drink alcohol or smoke anymore.
Comment by mynewaccount5 at 05/02/2025 at 03:40 UTC
6 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I was thinking something similar reading through this thread. Part of me goes "how do people not understand that it's not real", but also I'm prone to sleepwalking and do pretty crazy things while sleep walking. There's been 4 or 5 occasions where I've woken up and decided I had to lock my blanket in my closet to protect myself. I wake up in the morning and remember locking the blanket up but can't remember why I was so scared of it. No hallucinations, but really shows how strange the brain can be.