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Why do we hallucinate?

What exactly is a hallucination and how does it occur? Hallucination is actually the perception of sound, smell or visual effects.

These are effects that occur without specific stimuli and those that are not present. Hallucination can be caused by several things, such as drugs, dreams, or neurological diseases. It also happens that they occur in the form of sound, and in those cases when the hallucinating person claims to hear the voices of the deceased or unreal and mythological beings.

The word hallucination comes from the Latin word alucinari, which translates as “walking in the mind”.

What types of hallucinations are there?


There are different types of hallucinations, depending on the cause that triggers it. Hallucinations are most often caused by drug use or fever. It can occur in people with disabilities and those with impaired hearing. They can also occur as a consequence of a serious illness or a mental disorder, such as schizophrenia.

There is a large number of visual hallucinations, such as a visual disorder called Dysmegalopsia, when things are experienced as visually larger or smaller than they really are. Then the Chromatopsia hallucination, when everything is the same color or the Brobdingnagian hallucination, which makes all people look like giants or Lilliputian, where the situation is reversed and many others.

The most famous visual hallucination is a mirage, its appearance in unusual situations is characteristic, and it reflects the realization of a wish.

In addition to visual hallucinations, there are also auditory hallucinations that are characteristic of schizophrenia and include different voices. When it comes to this hallucination, people often talk to voices, and sometimes they try to physically deal with each other.

People also hallucinate when they feel that insects are crawling on their skin. It is a type of hallucination that is related to the sense of touch.

Psychologists, experts and philosophers have been trying to figure out this phenomenon for a long time. One of the theories is that the hallucination occurs due to a chemical imbalance, because research has shown that during the hallucination, different chemical processes take place in certain parts of the brain.

Countless reasons

dr. Alan Manevitz, a clinical psychiatrist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York says that a large number of psychiatric and medical conditions are related to hallucinations and delusions.

Such conditions include personality disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, brain tumors, thyroid disorders, epilepsy, some infectious diseases, and medications. Women can develop postpartum psychosis, which can include hallucinations. Doctors advise that anyone who has had such psychotic episodes, such as hallucinations and delusions, should talk to their doctor about it and get tests to see if it’s something serious, if it’s momentary loss of contact with reality or is caused by some other reasons

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