The Hallucinations Are a sensory perception of a non-existent reality and that we conceive as a true stimulus. Surely you've turned off the alarm clock thinking it was ringing and yet it's not yet time for it to ring. What is this about? How does a hallucination occur?
This type of psychopathological phenomenon is not only suffered by people suffering from some type of mental disorder, but is something more common than we think.
Somatic, kinesthetic, visual, auditory, negative hallucinations, delusions... Throughout this article we will explain to you 12 types of hallucinations Which, in the most extreme cases, can be very damaging to your mental health.
It is necessary to know that not all hallucinations are perceived as real, in some cases, the person knows perfectly that it is the product of his own mind, with which they do not interfere on a personal, work or social level.
Therefore, the conviction of reality or not of this hallucination, will be a key factor to take into account when making a possible diagnosis of mental disorder.
What is a hallucination?
All of us once talking about hallucinations, we have linked it to a"crazy"or"paranoid"person who claims to see or hear things that he can only experience. But not only in people with mental disorders or thinking disorders, but healthy people can also experience them under certain situations.
Salde and Ventral (1988) define an hallucination as:
A) An experience similar to perception, which occurs in the absence of the appropriate stimulus.
B) That it has all the strength and impact of a real and
C) It can not be controlled voluntarily by the one who experiences it.
Types of hallucinations
Hallucinations are classified according to their complexity, their contents or themes of which they treat and the sensorial modality to which they belong.
Emphasize that at least the hallucinations are formed, the more likely they are due to neurological or biochemical causes and less to mental disorders, such as schizophrenia .
As for the contents or topics that can treat hallucinations, these can be endless: fear, memories, religious content..
With regard to sensory modality, hallucinations can be Visual , Auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, somatic, etc. Being l The most frequent being those of the auditory and visual type.
1- Auditory hallucinations
The most frequent. There are Various types and characteristics . Among them we can have some simple, called acoasmas that appear in the form of beeps, murmurs, bells etc. Or more complex hallucinations, or also called phonemes, where people often hear words or voices with some meaning.
A variant of this is the phenomenon called"thought echo", where the patient hears his own thoughts aloud as he thinks them.
It is also typical for some patients to hear voices that speak to them in second or third person. In people with schizophrenia usually appears quite.
Visual hallucinations
This type of hallucination can range from light flashes (also called photons) to human scenes or figures.
A variety of this type, although not very usual, are the Autoscopies . These consist of seeing itself reflected in a glass but with a gelatinous appearance or, on the other hand, not be reflected in the mirror as if it were a vampire.
Another type of visual hallucination, which would have no root with mental problems, is the Alcoholic hallucinosis . This is characterized by the appearance of unreal beings (objects, animals, people) in the mind of one who has ingested a high concentration of alcohol.
3 - Olfactory hallucinations
These are usually not very frequent, usually the sufferer usually refers to them as unpleasant odors, or for example feel that they are being poisoned.
4- Taste hallucinations
Those who present this type of hallucination, refer to them as having a rotten taste or excrement, being quite unpleasant. It is very typical in cases of depression .
Tactile or haptic hallucinations
Among them there are different types.
- Thermal , Where unreal sensations of cold or heat occur
- Water Or perception of flow, such as feeling that your chest is full of water
- Paresthesias Or tingling. It could include Delirium by formication , Which would feel like tiny insects moving through the skin.
The latter type of hallucinations is often very characteristic in people suffering from abstinence syndrome Alcohol or Cocaine psychosis .
Somatic hallucinations
Or sensations that come from the body, as if they were totally real. An example would be to feel that your body is empty, to notice that your genitals are reduced, to experience that you have organs made of gold, etc.
Kinesthetic hallucinations
In this type of hallucinations, the subject believes that some parts of the body are moving to him, when in fact it is not so. It usually occurs in subjects with Parkinson's .
Variants of hallucinations
In addition to the different types of hallucinations we have seen, there are other variants that do not consider hallucinations because the person is aware that they are not real.
8- Pseuduction
In pseudoalucination there is no clear conviction about the reality of experience, that is to say, doubt of experience and ascribes it to his own mind.
An example would be the hallucination of widowhood, which consists of believing to have seen or heard your wife or husband, but the person who feels it knows perfectly that it is not true.
9- Functional hallucination
In this case, the stimulus that triggers the hallucination is perceived by the same sensory modality. For example: listen to your dog when you hear a particular song.
10- Reflex hallucination
Of all the hallucinations, this is one of the ones that surprised me the most when I met her. A real stimulus, belonging to one sensory modality, activates another hallucination in another different modality. For example: feeling pinched when you come across a person.
11- Negative hallucination
It consists in not perceiving something that if it exists, the opposite of the others. Although some authors believe it has more to do with suggestion.
12. Hallucination extracampina
We perceive something that is outside our field of vision. For example: listen to voices of a people of France, when the perceiver lives in Seville.
Pseudoalucinations
Finally, we have the pseudoalucionations or anomalous images. These usually occur in the absence of the stimulus that caused them. Some examples are:
Hypnopompic or hypnagogic images
The hypnopompic ones are related to the images that appear when awakening, while the hypnagogicas are related to the phenomena that appear in the numbness. An example of hypnagogic would be to feel that you fall into the void.
Alucinoid images
These images are not produced by any stimulus and the subject does not conceive them as real.
They usually occur in the black space of the eyes or also known as Müller effect.
Mnemonic images
They are images of our memories that can be seen in a transformed way. Inside we would have eidetic images, also known as a"sensory recall." For example the eidetic child would do that would be to focus their attention on a flat surface imagining some object that previously had perceived.
Consecutive or post-image images
These types of images usually appear when excessive sensory stimulation occurs prior to the experience. An example would be to look at a waterfall for a few seconds and see how it descends, to later experience the opposite movement.
Parasitic images
They usually occur when the subject does not focus on them and disappear when focused on them.
Now you know more about what hallucinations are, and what types there are. If you have any doubts, leave us your comment. I hope I have helped Thank you!