really_fed_up

Would PAWS cause someone to hallucinate and truly believe that they had dinner with a famous person, and to give vivid details of this dinner to his / her friends and loved ones, and sound lucid while doing so?

LucyA

PAWs is what happens when someone just stops drinking and goes cold turkey right? if so then I'd say yes definately it could cause what you describe. My brother had a similar episode where he convinced my mum there'd been a fire in his bedroom, he washed the sheets because they smelled smoky and even showed her the scorched part of the carpet, it wasn't scorched at all and there had been no fire but he was convinced it had happened and seemed quite 'normal' and lucid when he was telling us about it. So working from that I'd say it was definately possible.

DesertEyes

Hello there RFD

Depends. Are you talking about your sister? From what you have been posting I thought she was _not_ interesting in quitting. PAWS only happens to people _after_ they quit and their body is going thru chemical adjustments.

Hallucinations can be caused by many different things, of which PAWS is just one. There's a ton of drugs out there than can cause hallucinations, and just drinking more than the liver can handle will cause hallucinations. If you browse around this forum you will see many stories of alcohlics who urinate in a closet, because they are hallucinating that they are in a bathroom. In all cases hallucinations are dangerous, it's how alkies get run over on a freeway, set themselves on fire in a kitchen or simply fall out a window.

If you can ever catch your sister, or whoever it is, during a hallucination then that is a really good time to call the police and have them do a "welfare check". A hallucinating person is a danger to themselves, and if they get in a car and drive they are incredibly dangerous to everybody else. However, I suggest you make a plan _first_, becuase if you do call the cops I think you're going to generate a lot of emotion in your Mom. She's making your life miserable enough already, so you need to be prepared.

Mike

steve11694

hallucinations visual and /or auditory, delusions, blackouts, secondary psychoses, wernikes, korsakoffs syndromes. alcohol can be incredibly toxic.

it is horrible to watch a loved one deteriorate especially if you remember the person before they became alcoholic.

justanothrdrunk

Not really.

"Post acute" means the after stage of the initial withdrawal. The first 72 hours after stopping is the acute phase - when the delerium tremens can be fatal. The next 12-18 months is the post acute phase.

PAWS is the long term repair that your brain needs to do after it has been damaged for so long. The effects vary. Everyone is different.

I've never heard of vivid hallucinations being part of PAWS, but I'm no expert.

I do know that many with psychosis use drugs/alcohol to cope. Is it possible this was a psychotic episode? I might consider consulting a psychiatrist.

LucyA

Sorry, I wasn't sure. Thanks for the explanation.