Husband has 'seen' trucks veering at him...

[Hubby's Hallucinating]

My husband told me last night that he has seen about 20 "hallucinations" since he was about 16 (he is now 30).  He said the majority of them were tractor trailers crossing the line while he is driving and hitting him.  The other hallucinations were: hanging his arm out of his truck window and "seeing" his arm being severed off by a pole, a neighbor of ours standing on his front porch watching him getting into his truck in the morning when he was getting ready to go to work (by the way he said the neighbor looked like a zombie), and he admitted the weirdest one was  guy diving through our big front window with a machette.  He realizes that what he is seeing is not real.  I asked him what he does to make them go away.  He said he just closes his eyes for a moment and shakes it off and it goes away.  I am frightened because his mother is diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.  My husband however does not otherwise show ill mental health except maybe for a short-fuse temper at times.  He works daily even overtime, is a loving husband, and a loving father to our 2 children.  I have been reading up on schizophenia, he does not think people hear his thoughts or anything like that. He realizes what he is seeing is not real.  I told him that seeing things is still not normal and joked with him not to "go schizo" on me.  He laughed and said he doesn't want to go schizo on himself either. Can you tell me if I should suggest his see a psychologist for the visions?

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

There are probably more cases like this in the world than anyone realizes but there is not much literature to guide us here. This may be a symptom complex that is basically a stress relief, and it will go no further, but be an expression of an underlying stress. I would be on the safe side and have a very experienced doctor, probably one from a university hospital, make an evaluation. There is probably no hurry, but would be wise to do when you can.  Just be careful of not being over-diagnosed and given medications that you don't need.  if that seems to happen, get a second opinion.

[sunfėll]

If your husband has ever taken drugs, or if his mother has, there is a good book called "Clear Body, Clear Mind", by L. Ron Hubbard. You might be interested in this. The book highlights a doctor's use of sauna on his patients. The most interesting part was that the former psychedelic drug users, even if it was just a one time user, had a "trip" with hallucinations and everything during sauna treatment, because of the drug being detoxified. I believe that drug-use is a possible cause of delusional thinking and hallucinations AND that drugs leave residues inside a person's body that can continue to affect a person, especially in warm weather. This is why most "schizophrenics" are former drug users.

Hallucinations are an organic disturbance for which there are a lot of reasons, meanwhile the criteria for recovery from "schizophrenia" is the ability to make and maintain friendships, support family, and pay income tax (or do well in school). If that is true it doesn't seem that your husband would be in danger of being diagnosed "schizophrenic". You probably just want to make sure that he is not having delusional thoughts and becoming "schizophrenic". I don't think you have anything to worry about unless your husband was a former drug user, and that would depend on the extent and type of drug used. One other possible cause of hallucinations is sleep deprivation. Sleeping pills and certain psychiatric medications can mimic sleep deprivation by interupting the dream cycle, and therefore cause hallucinations.

If the hallucinations were disturbing him, I think he would see a psychologist on his own.

[sunfėll]

Nice bait.

[sunfėll]

You suppose. I've never heard of Dianetics. What exactly do you think is wacky? Specific to this, toxins from your environment are stored in fat cells and are analyzed. You can analyze the secretions in sweat. Regardless of L. Ron Hubbard..Did you know that? Do you think it is negligable? The statistics on "schizophrenics" can't be changed.

As for L Ron Hubbard's specific detoxification method...I believe the studies he references are valid. I don't know about the science fiction. I don't know what you are talking about, but Narconon International, www.narconon.org talks about his method and how it helps people, so it must be somewhat reasonable. It's something people should know about so they can take responsibility for their health.

From Narconon:

"While drugs and their metabolites quickly become undetectable
in blood and urine, some as rapidly as 3 days after last usage,
drug metabolites remain stored in fatty tissues for years. That accumulated drug residues continue to cause adverse symptoms led L. Ron Hubbard to develop a program aimed at reducing levels of toxins in the body to assist in recovery."

"As a doctor it was evident to me that the long-term physical, mental and emotional consequences of drug use had something to do with the residual effects of the drugs themselves." Dr. Meagan Shields

http://www.narconon.org/narconon_studies02.htm

http://www.narconon.org/narconon_detox.htm