Hallucinations
 

This was touched on recently in another thread, and it got me thinking about something that happened to me a while ago...

I think I might have had hallucinations after a night of heavy drinking. I'm not 100% sure because this is the only time I've experienced something like this. Tell me what you think...

It was while I was driving in the afternoon the next day, sober but with one of the worst hangovers I've ever had. I was driving along a stretch of road near my house, this road runs between two suburbs and is mostly countryside with a few houses on it. I saw some kind of police car blocking the road. It looked different than any police car I've ever seen. This "police car" redirected me and two other cars down a dead-end side street. I could see the road for about half a mile ahead, and there was no sign of an accident or any other reason why they might have been turning cars around.

When I got onto the side street, one of the other cars stopped on the side of the road and some people started getting out. At this point I was starting to get creeped out, so I turned around and drove back the way I came.

Then, shortly after that, I was driving along a back road due to the other road being "closed". I was driving at the speed limit, and I saw a car in front of me driving off into the distance, like it was traveling at least twice as fast as me.

I still don't know if these things happened or not. Do you think this was caused by my drinking?

I didn't quit drinking until about 10 months after this, and nothing like this happened again.

Anyway, just thought I'd share this... yet another reason why I'll never go back to drinking!

You never know, could have been withdrawals starting or completely unrelated too. As you say though, another good reason to stay sober. Glad it never happened again!

gonna go with withdrawals lmao

I had all kinds of visual disturbances during withdrawals and, when I was detoxing in the hospital, had some very frightening hallucinations. So, yeah, alcohol pretty much does damage to the whole body.

As long as there were no alien abductions I wouldn't worry about it:scared:

ALIENS ARE SCARY MAN!! I SEEND EM!

lmao

I've had some very realistic hallucinations in withdrawal, visual and auditory.

I recommend anyone reading who's having this happen see a Dr - best to be safe.

D

How are you today Jack?

Doing alright thanks Sleepie! I have 6 months sober as of today, pretty happy about that.

How about you?

That's great :)

I am the same as ever.

My only experiences with hallucinations - unfortunately - were the worst kind: AURAS. This often precedes a Withdrawal Seizure, and I had one with, literally, no minutes to spare in a Hospital ER. It was my 3rd day Cold Turkey (Don't Do This). I had gotten progressively weaker and more disoriented. My SO stayed with and watched me, but by the 3rd morning I was seeing Bright Red and Blue Flashing lights. Terrifying and they got more frequent and brighter.
At the ER I was taken immediately, seized and woke up later in the ICU where I spent 6 days.
Since then I have had 4 single night lapses. Very stupid. It could have happened again. IF it does, though, it won't be from drinking. I was given another chance.
Congratulation on your success!

Thank you!

Congratulations on six months Jack

Thanks SW :)

You're welcome Jack.

I wish I could help you with your experience, but I was as mystified as you were. Very dreamlike, but you seemed very aware. Perhaps it happened as you recall? RE: Seizures. They don't happen to everyone, but all should be in-the-know. I had only been a drinker for 3 yrs., but I went on a hard three-day bender, and binges can bring them on (according to certain studies; I'm not a sscientist). Hallucinations like mine often precede them. Stay safe.

Auras are awful. Since I have epilepsy, those flashy lights spread into horrible hallucinations of people that aren't there and the one time I had flashes of old family pictures I hadn't seen for years.

I kept screaming at the medic to just put me under somehow. It lasted for 40 minutes. Then comes the awful feeling like youre being electrocuted.

I guess I seized so hard that time they had to tie me down and give me haldol. This was all after a night of hard drinking.

I used to have auditory hallucinations when I would try to quit.

Every time I see the title of this thread, it reminds me of my last alcohol detox. I was in the hospital, where I thought such episodes were to be prevented. I'd never had halluciantions to the extent that I did there. Sure, I'd experienced trailing vision, dizziness, seeing things moving out of the corner of my eye, loud explosions in my head when I was trying to drift off to sleep. etc. I once awoke to a huge black spider crawling clumsily across the floor, but this topped it all. And the ironic part was that it started up just as I thought I was feeling better and ready to go home.

I was seeing demons in my room. They would slither along the walls and slow almost to a stop to stare into my eyes. I was having out of body experiences. At one point, I was at the home of one of the nurses and laying on her sofa. I was telling her a dead man was under the sofa and he was pulling my left hand down. In actuality, that was one of the nurses in the process of strapping me down. I remember at some point, during all my flailing and fighting, I accidentally kicked a nurse in the face. I was screaming out, "It's only a dream. Wake up! WAKE UP!!"

Hallucinations went on for several days. I'm not certain whether it was DT's, or the haldol injections, or a combination of both, but the whole experience really creeps me out whenever I think of it. It also serves as a grim reminder of yet one more reason I should never ever take a drink again.

BehindBlue Eys,
So sorry you had to suffer those. But your comment also gave me some reassurance. I didn't know if the flashy lights were common. But they came on about 6 hours before I seized so I hope that if I ever do again (I'm seeing a Neurologist - Finally!!) to ask if I have lowered my 'threshold' now, because other medications might lower or raise it too.
Thanks for the comment.

GeetMeOut,
What an experience!
Thanks for your comment. I hope that follks get a look at this thread. We need to be aware of the many aspects of our substance use.