Know the Causes of Hallucinations and Types

Hallucinations are perceptual disorders that make a person hear, feel, smell, and see something that is not really there. In certain circumstances, hallucinations can cause threats to yourself and others. Hallucinations are sensations created by one's mind without any real source. This disorder can affect the five senses. A person is called hallucinating when he sees, hears, feels, or smells a scent that is not really there. These things only exist in their minds. Hallucinations often have a strong belief that what they experience is a real perception so that it often causes problems in everyday life.

Causes of Hallucinations

Hallucinations can occur due to various factors. Here are some of the most common causes of hallucinations:

• Psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia, dementia, and severe depression with symptoms of psychosis. Psychosis is a collection of symptoms of mental disorders in which a person feels separated from the real reality, characterized by emotional and mind disorders. Patients with psychosis will find it difficult to distinguish between the real thing and not.
• Nerve and brain disorders, such as Parkinson's disease, migraine with aura, delirium, stroke, epilepsy, and Alzheimer's disease.
• Too much alcohol and illegal drugs, such as cocaine, amphetamine and heroin.
• Fever in young children or in the elderly.
• Sleep disorders, such as narcolepsy.
• Severe illnesses, such as kidney failure or advanced liver disorders, HIV / AIDS, brain cancer.
• Severe head injury.
• Electrolyte disturbances, such as low blood sodium levels (hyponatremia) and low levels of magnesium (hypomagenesemia).
• Acid-base disorders, as in acidosis.
• Drug side effects.

Different Types of Hallucinations You Need To Know

Based on the characteristics and causes, common types of hallucinations are as follows:

• Hearing hallucinations (audio)

Hearing hallucinations are the most common type of hallucinations, which causes a person to hear sounds that no one else hears. You might hear someone talking to you or telling you to do certain things. The voice can be angry, neutral, intimate, music, conversation, laughter, and even footsteps. For example, you seem to hear someone walking in the attic, even though there is no one in the attic. This condition is a common symptom of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or dementia.

• Hallucinations of vision (visual)

Visual hallucinations involve the sense of sight, as if it were seeing something but the object actually does not exist. Visual hallucinations can see in the form of an object, visual pattern, human, or light. For example, you might see someone who isn't actually in the room, or see a flashing light that nobody else can see.

• Smell hallucinations (olfactic)

Smell hallucinations involve the sense of smell. A person may smell fragrance or smell bad or feel that his body smells bad when in fact he does not.

• Hallucinations of taste (gustatorik)

Taste hallucinations involve the sense of taste that causes a person to feel the sensation that something that is eaten or drunk has a strange taste. For example, someone complains of feeling or tasting metal taste constantly. This type of hallucination is one of the symptoms that often occurs in people with epilepsy.

• Hallucinations of touch (tactile)

Tactile hallucinations involve the feeling of touch or movement in your body. For example, you feel as if someone was touched or tickled, even though there is no one else around you. You may feel that insects are crawling on your skin or organs in your body, or feel as if a blaze is burning your face.

Apart from severe conditions where hallucinations often persist, there are also temporary hallucinations that are not chronic. For example, hallucinations that you might experience when one family member has just died. You may hear the person's voice for a moment or just glance at it. This type of hallucination usually disappears when the suffering of loss slowly fades. Hallucinations are a serious medical condition that requires immediate examination and treatment of a psychiatrist. In addition to the need to consult a psychiatrist immediately, people with hallucinations are not advised to live or travel alone. With proper and early treatment (for example medication and psychotherapy), hallucinations are expected to be resolved quickly so as not to endanger yourself and others.