You might be familiar with auditory hallucinations that involve hearing voices, but they can manifest in other ways. The patient might hear music, footsteps, and other everyday sounds. You might even experience them harmlessly as you fall asleep.
What Causes Them?
Auditory hallucinations can be caused by psychiatric conditions such as psychosis or bipolar disorder, but they can also be symptoms of medical illnesses such as traumatic brain injuries or epilepsy. They can occur before or during seizures.
When To Worry
Stress and trauma can cause auditory hallucinations, but several other possible causes demand a more urgent response. It’s crucial to rule out brain tumours, stroke, and neurological conditions. If the cause is a psychiatric condition, respond urgently if the hallucinations are frequent, scary, or triggering episodes of self-harm.
How To Help the Patient
Hallucinations can be disturbing, but once you’ve sought a medical diagnosis, you can help the patient by guiding them towards grounding exercises such as walking, cleaning, or mindfulness meditation. Mental health training courses Milton Keynes such as tidaltraining.co.uk/mental-health-training-courses/milton-keynes can teach you how to validate the patient’s feelings.
Coping Skills
Some schizophrenia patients are encouraged to address their hallucinations directly, but this focusing approach might make their anxiety worse. Calming, grounding behaviours are usually far more effective at confronting distress.
Not all coping strategies are effective in all patients, so you might find that the sufferer knows how to minimise their distress better than anyone else, even their therapist. If you want to support someone who’s experiencing hallucinations, listen before you speak.
