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Hallucinations causing panic attacks

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sweetietweet

New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 31 May 2008
Posts: 1
Hallucinations causing panic attacks
Posted: 05-31-08 11:53am

A few months ago I had to do an assignment for science called The Blackout Syndrome. In it there was a rather graphic picture of a man with hemorrhagic fever (i.e. bleeding from the eyes, nose, mouth, ears) and it scared me badly. Ever since then I've been hallucinating him coming at me out of the darkness to kill me. I'm otherwise a sane person and I'm wondering if hallucinations from my fear are causing me to have panic attacks.

I've never had hemophobia (fear of blood) before.
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jcottle11

New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 31 May 2008
Posts: 6
to sweetietweet
Posted: 05-31-08 12:33pm

The important clarification about hallucinations are when they are occurring and in what context, ie visual only, visual and auditory, etc.

Many people are sometimes traumatized by observing something visually graphic in nature, whether in real-time or in a photograph. The consequences usually appear in the form of nightmares, etc, but can sometimes be present otherwise.

The periods just before sleep occurs and just after are points at which hallucinatory experiences most often arise. Hypnogogic and hypnopompic hallucinations are formed when the brain is either entering or leaving the sleep cycle and the formations can produce startling real images in some cases. Panic threshold as a consequence is not uncommon.

If the hallucinations are occurring at times other than described above, then consideration of evaluation may be warranted if the visual imagery is vivid or real to you, if auditory hallucinations accompany the visual content and if you experience other sensations such as tactile, etc. during the episodes. It is uncommon for hallucinations to occur under normal waking hours and rarely can exposure to photographic content such as that described result in active hallucinations in the absence of a previously known disorder.

Best regards,

J Cottle, MD
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