Content

• Steps
• Part 1 of 3: Home Treatment (Helping Oneself)
• Part 2 of 3: Home Treatment (Helping Others)
• Part 3 of 3: Medical Assistance

Hallucinations are a reason to be alarmed, whether you experience this phenomenon on yourself or observe it in another person. Mild cases of hallucinations can be successfully treated at home, but severe or chronic ones require mandatory medical attention.

Steps

Part 1 of 3: Home Treatment (Helping Oneself)

1. 1 Understand the nature of hallucinations. Hallucinations can affect any of the five senses - sight, hearing, taste, smell, or touch - and can have a variety of underlying causes. However, in any case, a person experiences them while being conscious, and they seem absolutely real.
   • Most hallucinations are disorienting and unpleasant, but some seem interesting or enjoyable.
   • If a person hears voices, such hallucinations are called auditory, if he sees non-existent people, objects, light - these are visual hallucinations. Feeling like insects or something else are crawling on your skin is a common tactile hallucination.
2. 2 Measure the temperature. High body temperature can cause hallucinations of varying severity, especially in children and the elderly. Even if you are not in any of these age categories, it can cause hallucinations, so it's best to check if you have a fever.
   • Hallucinations can appear at any temperature above 38.3 degrees, but more often they occur at temperatures above 40 degrees. Temperatures above 40 degrees require immediate medical attention, regardless of whether it is accompanied by hallucinations or not.
   • For high fever that can be treated at home, start by taking an antipyretic such as ibuprofen, acetaminophen, or paracetamol. Drink plenty of fluids and take your temperature regularly.
3. 3 Get enough sleep. Mild to moderate hallucinations can be caused by severe lack of sleep. Severe cases of hallucinations usually have other causes, but lack of sleep can make them worse.
   • An adult needs an average of seven to nine hours of sleep a night. If you are currently suffering from severe sleep deprivation, you may even need to increase this amount by several hours until your body recovers.
   • Daytime sleep can disrupt the normal sleep cycle and lead to insomnia and, as a result, hallucinations. If your sleep mode is knocked down, try to set it to normal.
4. 4 Manage stress more effectively. Anxiety is another common cause of mild hallucinations, which can also exacerbate severe hallucinations due to other causes. Learning to minimize mental and physical stress can help reduce the frequency and severity of hallucinations.
   • To reduce physical stress, you need to keep your body hydrated and get enough rest. Regular light to moderate exercise can also improve your overall health and relieve you of stress-related symptoms, including mild hallucinations.
5. 5 Know when to ask for help. If you are unable to distinguish between reality and hallucination, you should immediately seek emergency medical attention.
   • If you are experiencing mild hallucinations, but this recurs over and over, you also need to make an appointment with your doctor, as they are most likely due to medical reasons. This is especially true if general measures to improve well-being have not been effective.
   • If you experience hallucinations with other severe symptoms, you also need emergency medical attention. Symptoms include discoloration of the lips or nails, chest pain, clammy skin, confusion, fainting, high fever, vomiting, fast or slow heart rate, shortness of breath, trauma, cramps, abrupt abdominal pain, or behavior disorders.

Part 2 of 3: Home Treatment (Helping Others)

1. 1 Learn to recognize symptoms. People who experience hallucinations may not be open about it. In such cases, you need to know how to identify the less obvious signs of hallucinations.
   • A person experiencing auditory hallucinations may not notice those around them and actively talk to themselves. He may seek solitude or obsessively listen to music in an attempt to drown out voices.
   • A person whose gaze is focused on something you cannot see may experience visual hallucinations.
   • If a person brushes or shakes off something that is invisible to the eye, this may be a sign of tactile (tactile) hallucinations, if they pinch their nose for no reason - hallucinations associated with the sense of smell. Spitting out food can be a symptom of gustatory hallucinations.
2. 2 Keep calm. If you need to help a person with hallucinations, it is important to stay calm at all times.
   • Hallucinations can become a source of increased anxiety, so that the patient may be in a state of panic. If stress or anxiety intensifies because of you, it will only make the situation worse.
   • If someone you know is hallucinating, you should also discuss this with them while they are not hallucinating. Ask what the likely cause might be and what kind of support you can offer.
3. 3 Explain what's really going on. Calmly explain to the patient that you cannot see, hear, touch, taste or smell what he is describing.
   • Speak directly and without accusations, so as not to upset the patient.
   • If the hallucinations are mild to moderate and the person has experienced hallucinations before, you can also try to explain to him that his feelings are not real.
   • Those who have hallucinations for the first time, as well as those who suffer from them in severe form, may not be able to understand that they are hallucinations and behave aggressively in response to your doubts.
4. 4 Distract the patient. Depending on the circumstances, it can be helpful to distract the person by changing the subject of the conversation or by moving to a different location.
   • This advice is suitable for cases of mild to moderate hallucinations, but you may not be able to influence someone who is experiencing severe hallucinations.
5. 5 Encourage the person to seek professional help. If someone you know suffers from recurring hallucinations, persistently convince him of the need for medical or psychological assistance.
   • Talk to the person when they are not hallucinating. Discuss the severity of the situation and share any knowledge you have about possible causes and solutions to the problem. Your approach should be based on love and support. Never take an accusatory position.
6. 6 Keep monitoring the situation. When hallucinations escalate, they can become a threat to the safety of the patient himself or those around him.
   • When it comes to safety, urgently call an ambulance.
   • If the hallucinations are accompanied by other severe physical symptoms, or if the patient is no longer able to distinguish hallucinations from reality, emergency medical attention is also required.

Part 3 of 3: Medical Assistance

1. 1 Diagnose and treat the root cause. Hallucinations are a typical symptom of certain psychiatric disorders, but they can also be caused by a number of physiological causes. The only way to get rid of hallucinations in the long term is to treat the underlying cause.
   • Mental causes include schizophrenia, schizoid and schizotypal personality disorder, psychotic depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and bipolar disorder.
   • Physiological factors affecting the central nervous system can also cause hallucinations. These include brain tumors, delirium, dementia, epilepsy, stroke, and Parkinson's disease.
   • Some infectious diseases, such as bladder infections or lung infections, can also cause hallucinations. Some people experience hallucinations with migraines.
   • Drug or alcohol use can also cause hallucinations, especially when taking large doses or when you stop taking it (withdrawal symptoms, or "withdrawal symptoms").
2. 2 Take antipsychotic medications. Antipsychotics, also known as antipsychotics, are most often used to help manage hallucinations. These medications can be prescribed to treat hallucinations caused by both mental and physiological causes, especially when other treatments are not available or are insufficient.
   • Clozapine, an atypical antipsychotic, is usually prescribed at a dosage of 6 to 50 mg per day, depending on the severity of the hallucinations. The dose should be increased gradually to prevent complications. When treating with this drug, it is necessary to regularly monitor blood counts, as it can lower the white blood cell count to a dangerous level.
   • Quetiapine is another atypical antipsychotic drug used to treat hallucinations. It is generally less effective than clozapine in most cases, but safer.
   • Other common antipsychotics include risperidone, aripiprazole, olanzapine, and ziprasidone. These drugs are generally well tolerated by most patients, but may not be safe for people with Parkinson's disease.
3. 3 Adjust the dose of your medications. Some drugs used for other indications can cause hallucinations in some people. This is especially common in patients with Parkinson's disease.
   • Even if you suspect your medication is causing you hallucinations, never stop taking it without first talking to your doctor. Abrupt cessation of treatment may lead to other complications.
   • Patients with Parkinson's disease are usually the first to stop amantadine and other anticholinergic drugs. If this does not help, then the dosage may be reduced or the dopamine antagonists may be discontinued.
   • When monitoring the use of these medications does not cure the hallucinations, doctors may still prescribe an antipsychotic drug. This is also done when the symptoms of Parkinson's disease recur or worsen with a decrease in dosage.
4. 4 Go through rehabilitation if necessary. If you are addicted to hallucinogenic drugs or alcohol, you should undergo a rehabilitation program to help you get rid of the addiction.
   • Cocaine, LSD, amphetamines, marijuana, heroin, ketamine, phencyclidine, ecstasy are all hallucinogens.
   • Hallucinations can appear not only with drug use, but also with an abrupt cessation of it. However, hallucinations caused by withdrawal symptoms can usually be treated with antipsychotic medications.
5. 5 See a therapist regularly. Cognitive behavioral therapy, in particular, can help some patients with recurrent hallucinations, especially if the latter are caused by psychological disorders.
   • This therapy examines and evaluates a person's feelings and thoughts. By identifying the probable psychological causes of the problem, the professional therapist can develop a strategy to help the patient deal with it and relieve symptoms.
6. 6 Find a group therapy opportunity. Exercising in help and self-help groups can help reduce the severity and frequency of hallucinations, especially auditory hallucinations, caused by psychological causes.
   • Help groups teach patients to stay connected to reality and help them separate hallucinations and real life.
   • Self-help groups motivate people to take responsibility for their hallucinations, thereby helping to control and deal with them.