Anxiety causing hallucinations?

[moondust]

About two months ago, I had a horrible panic attack. It was actually the worst one of my life, the first one where I really thought I was dying (my heart was racing so fast, and felt numb tingles all over, thought I was having a heart attack). About 30 minutes after I calmed down from it, I could have swore I saw a huge black spider in my peripheral vision. Turns out the spider was never there.

I had another stressful event today, got very angry/high stress about something, and again after I calmed down, I saw a lizard in my peripheral vision dart across the computer keyboard. Again, not really there, the only lizards around here live in heavily forested areas. I know what I saw was just "in my head".

I've had issues in the past during long-term stressful life events where I could have swore I'd see a black shadow figure out of the corner of my eye, manevalently staring at me. Of course if I'd turn my head, it'd disappear. I haven't had that happen to me in a very long time, though.

Is this a normal stress-related phenomena? I know I'm not schizophrenic. And I'm pretty sure it's not related to my epilepsy (I get very stereotypical auditory hallucinations sometimes during an epileptic aura, totally not related to stress). Or is it a typical bipolar issue? It's kind of freaky when it happens.

 

[adaptive1]

I can tell you that when I have had OCD type obsessions in the past, my anxiety spikes and I feel like I see things or people that are not there, it is just my mind becomes conscious of what ever it is I am worried about and I feel haunted by images. My mind becomes very open to suggestion and I have thoughts like , "oh my God, there it is again" which just fuels the anxiety or obsession and then just makes it more likely to happen. Not saying this is happening to you, but do you think your anxiety could be making your mind play tricks on you? In other words do you think you see what you are looking for if that makes sense?

 

[H011yHawkJ311yBean]

Are you lacking sleep?

I had a friend who had chronic sleep problems (possible depression/anxiety or related to her alcohol recovery) and she was walking home one morning after pulling another all-nighter at the store. She lives downtown and she swears she looked up at what was once a light standard and saw a giraffe. Seriously. She told me this without cracking a smile, and looked a bit pale... Not like she was joking. She said it looked very real and it was standing there looking down at her.

So if something causes lack of oxygen (hyperventilation) or if your sleep is all messed up or something else is causing a mild chemical imbalance in the ol' noggin, I'd say maybe talk to your doctor or whichever medical professional you've got handy and see what he suggests...

 

[David Baxter PhD]

You are probably seeing "floaters" (aka "floaties") in the periphery of your visiuaql field and in the hypervigilant state that accompanies anxiety your mind interprets them as something threatening.

 

[Nikii]

Sort of related I suppose...but I was going through a particularly bad spell of anxiety and panic attacks when I first started therapy. I was disconnected and having flashbacks a lot at the time too. My therapist had a huge mahogany desk and a tall-back 4 legged chair she sat in. 5 weeks into therapy I finally reached a calmer and clearer space....I blinked several times and realized my therapist was actually sitting in a lazy-boy type chair, and the desk next to her was a smaller 4 legged, modest desk. She didn't change the furniture, and I will swear on my last breath it looked completely different for 5 sessions! We both had a good laugh about it.