Can Hallucinations Occur Due To Anxiety? Discover How To Deal With Them

Anxiety, experienced very intensely, can not only cause fear, but also carries other symptoms that can cause a feeling of going crazy, as if you are losing touch with reality. In most cases, this ends up just being a feeling. But, on the other hand, these symptoms of anxiety can resemble certain psychotic thoughts. One of the symptoms that extreme anxiety can cause is hallucinations. Although this is a rare sign of anxiety, some people in extreme cases may have mild hallucinations that cause more intense fears.

Why do I suffer from anxiety hallucinations?

Anxiety can cause people to end up thinking worse about the problems that usually worry them. Severe hallucinations, especially those involving visual elements, are usually extremely rare in people who suffer from anxiety, but that does not mean that they experience similar hallucinations that often contribute to increased anxiety.

People who may suffer from a psychotic break due to anxiety They can suffer a loss of reality so intense that they do not realize that what they see does not really exist. Given these symptoms, it is important to go to a psychologist or doctor.

Symptoms of anxiety hallucinations

People who suffer from anxiety hallucinations they usually describe the following:

1. See or hear something that is not real
2. Being convinced that you heard or saw something, but upon looking more specifically, you realize that what you saw or heard was not real
3. Having a taste or smell of a particular food, even though you have not eaten anything that would cause this taste or smell
4. Feeling a strong physical sensation, without anything around you to cause it
5. Hearing voices in your head, thinking that it is not your voice, since it does not say things that you would normally say to yourself

What types of hallucinations can people with anxiety have?

Normally, visual hallucinations are the least common when they occur due to anxiety. However, anxiety can cause someone to think that a visual problem is a hallucination. For example, seeing a shadow out of the corner of your eye, if you are experiencing extreme anxiety, can lead you to think that you are hallucinating.

The anxiety hallucinations They usually occur because our brain is very active and hypervigilant to face the ‘danger’ that is threatening us. This can cause people to experience hallucinations due to the following:

• Dream sounds: Some people may be so absorbed in their own thoughts that they hear the sounds of these daydreams as if they were real.
• Light changes: Anxiety activates our body’s fight or flight system, which can cause our eyes to deceive us, especially if there are changes in light in the environment.
• Distraction anxiety: When suffering from extreme anxiety, people can stop paying attention to the world around them, so that information is not processed normally, which can lead to certain hallucinations.
• Float/Disconnect: During a panic attack, some people may find that their brain goes ‘off’. In these cases, sufferers may begin to see the world as something unusual and temporarily lose control over reality.

In many cases, these anxiety hallucinations They can also be caused by experiencing extreme stress. Even so, whether for one of these two reasons, it is not known why this may occur.

How to deal with anxiety hallucinations?

If you are experiencing anxiety hallucinations, the most important thing you can do when faced with these symptoms is to remind yourself that it is a sign of this disorder. You should know that the majority of people who suffer from this type of hallucinations or psychotic thoughts due to anxiety usually experience it briefly and especially in extreme situations.

When these symptoms appear, it is important to go to a professional psychologist as soon as possible to deal with anxiety and reduce any of the fears that cause you to suffer from these hallucinations. In addition to having the help of a therapist, we recommend that you keep the following in mind:

1. Reduce stress: The best way to stop experiencing so much anxiety is to try to reduce the stress we have in our daily lives.
2. Cope with negative thoughts: This does not imply denying them or trying to ‘erase’ them from our minds. Instead, to calm anxiety, a key will be to reason with those thoughts that are not logical.
3. Deep relaxation: Becoming aware of your breathing can help you relieve perceived anxiety. Taking deeper, more conscious breaths will calm your nervous system.
4. Avoid stimulants: If you feel very anxious, you should avoid energy drinks or coffee, as this will stimulate your nervous system.
5. Accept the symptoms: Instead of trying to eliminate the symptoms, you should consider accepting them and becoming aware that these are facts related to your anxiety.

Although hallucinations due to anxiety are not usually very common, the reality is that the hyperalert or distracted state due to this disorder can lead to experiencing them in the most extreme cases. In these cases, treating anxiety is the only way to prevent and reduce these hallucinations.