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CEV closed eye hallucinations

Hi I had some problems with CEV. Is there somebody who knows more about that.I would really like to know more.I was reding about it but it seems it doesn t say too much.It says that it is caused from LSD but i have never tried it.I don t know how i got it.They are so vivid and every time i closed my eyes i see the things i am afraid of,and the things i really hate.Generally i suffer from schizofrenia.
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Avatar universal
It can be scary, can't it. Trying to fall asleep while already seeing the start of a nightmare is a bit tricky, so the (CEV) hallucinations tend to cause sleep deprivation as much as the other way around.
   You might find the following set of tricks useful. They take a lot of practice, but they worked great for me, and I hope it helps you cope with your hallucinations and get to sleep!  I'm not a doctor, just a guy with a quirk seemingly much like yours, so please take my advice with a grain of salt. But first some preamble to make sure we're talking about the same thing.

  Since about 6, I've hallucinated a static that covers all things. Though it's strongest in the dark when I'm relaxed, it persists faintly even in daylight. Independent of the time of day, when I relax in relative darkness the static becomes less random, forming patterns and faint auroras, which in turn become images that quell the static. These hallucinated images can be either still or animated, and each typically last 1-8 seconds each before morphing into the next image. While the images often depict normal things like patterns, objects or places, they can easily become frightening. Like when your tongue won't stop checking and reporting on a missing tooth, your mind will eagerly probe and get excited about the frightening images, making them more and more common, and making falling asleep very tricky.
   I've never done drugs beyond trying pot once (why spur the hallucinations?), and I'm in very good health besides a cyst in my occipital cortex. I've also never been diagnosed with CEV. My neurologist (a very good one) diagnosed me with: "something a bit like hypnagognic hallucinations... I wouldn't worry about it." His advice was good- whatever causes my hallucinations hasn't developed into anything worse, which is a blessing. I claim to have specifically CEV hallucinations based on a wiki article that describes my symptoms with an uncanny precision (posted at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed-eye_hallucination). Also, one of my friends has milder symptoms like mine, so I guess it's not too uncommon.

Enough prelude. Time for the tricks!
   First off, talk to a doctor. Though my advice is earnest and worked well for me, your hallucinations may stem from a different cause, or be preludes to something more dire. So, go check with a doctor!
   If your hallucinations are like mine, try starting by finding a good nightlight. Seeing an bloody, eyeless face behind your eyelids is bad, but when you open your eyes to try to get rid of it, if your room is dark you'll see the face right in front of you! Not good! Give yourself an escape, so you can open your eyes, see your room, and find some solace. I prefer orangish-red nightlights, because they blot out images well with your eyes open, but don't bother you too much with your eyes closed.
   Talking with friends about it helps more than you might expect. A big danger of this kind of constant hallucination is that it the more frightened you become, the more the hallucinations draw you in. Talking with friends helps to ground you in reality, and make the hallucinations feel less concerning and important. In turn, the hallucinations will become a bit less scary.
   Next, focus on your breathing. When the backs of your eyelids show frightening or spectacular things, it's easy to get wrapped up in it. This makes a downwards spiral: the more frightened you become, the more frightening the images become. However, you have an escape even with your eyes closed. You are much bigger than just the space behind your eyes. If you focus on breathing long, slow steady breaths, you'll find yourself less consumed by the images, and less bothered by them. Drawing your attention away from your vision using breathing requires a combination of focus and relaxation. At first, it's difficult to apply successfully without forcing yourself awake, but with consistent practice, you can get the hang of it. Good thing you have every night to practice, yes? :)
    Finally, try the following. English is poorly equipped to discuss this, so forgive me my confusing explanation. This is how I learned to (control?) the images.
    First learn to control their duration. Try to make each image last a bit longer than it would naturally, even the scary ones... especially the scary ones! This again requires both focus and relaxation, so practice that breathing trick first. As you slowly (months) learn to lengthen the time each image stays, you will learn to (feel?) the images.
Next, learn to control the view angle of the images. As each image comes to you, feel it, turn it just a bit, and let it go. When you see the front of a car: feel it, turn it just a bit so you can see the sides and the wheels, and let it go and become a new image. When you see a walking skeleton head on: feel it, turn it just a bit so you can see it's side, and let it go and become a new image. Again, you will get a better feel for the images using this technique. With this ability to control some aspects of the hallucination, you'll start to feel less helpless.
   With these techniques practiced, you can start learning to control the content and presence of the images. By calmly and continuously manipulating (as above) these hallucinations, you will finally start feeling (thoughts?) that you couldn't before. From here, enjoy exploring these new thoughts and you'll find the images start to go away, in much the same way the images originally made the static go away from the center of your view. This state of mind seems a lot like how people describe opening states of mediation, though I'm not sure it is. Once you make it here, sleep is easy to attain. It takes years of practice to find this place, and hours to get there at first. But with practice, you can get to this state of mind without the images in ten or twenty minutes!

  I wish I could help more, but there's no quick and easy way to it. Just set your goals to two or three years down the road and start practicing your breathing! You have a long life to live, so the effort spent should be worth it in the long run. In any case, I'll check back on the forum in case you or others post questions. Good luck!

  - Mike
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1 Comments
I just wanted to say than you for this comment. This has recently happened to me and it freaked me out. My hallucinations are likley caused from stress. Really thanks man, I thought I was going crazy and that in itself scared the crap out of me which made it get worse. Going to try the tricks at 1:20 am. Wish me luck!
Avatar universal
hi i suffer with this do you know if there is a connection with this and LLI http://samantics.net/2010/05/03/low-latent-inhibition/
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1 Comments
I have the same thing. never tried drugs, i dont really meditate , i get plenty of sleep. i see intense geometry and visual snow (pointillism) and also images that come out of the fractals like when i was a kid. when paired with inappropriate salience (look up salience syndrome its the new schizophrenia name) it is like im looking at god or seeing the dream of reality
Avatar universal
ILADVOCATE is right, sleep deprivation can cause psychosis in and of itself, if deprived long enough, and it can actually be normal to hallucinate while waking or falling asleep because the brain is trying to make sense of the world while it's partially in the sleep phase.
Helpful - 0
585414 tn?1288941302
If you have psychotic thoughts or delusions without this aspect that would be one thing. However, people who are deprived of sleep (everyone, even if they don't have a psychiatric disability) will eventually start to have hallucinations. Sleeping is not just to rest but a way the brain restores the connections between certain areas of it so of course its neccessary for one's health and if a person's sleep is disrupted even if they are not aware of it it can sometimes cause this to happen. Only a doctor could provide a specific diagnosis but it might be worthwhile for you to speak to a neurologist and have them run a sleep study (if warranted) but definitely an EEG and other standard tests to find out if there are any neurological causes.  If you have delusions and psychotic thoughts at other times of the day and in general that would be different but it still would be worthwhile for them to rule out physical causes within their discretion.
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Avatar universal
Yes I did,I spoke to my doctor.I spoke to few of them but nobody seemd to know much about that.There doesn t even exist nothing about Cev in Croatian.I hardly found it in English.One of them diagnosed me schizofrenia,second one  some kind of delusional disorder.What kind of sleep disorder it could be.I used to have some problems with sleeping.I couldn t get sleep for a long time but nothing more of that.Now that is past because i take medications.But i really want to know more about CEV.How come they happend naturally,why they are so vivid and how come i see all the time the things i really hate.I don t like them.What i see are objects and people with feeligs.What i see i feel.
Helpful - 0
585414 tn?1288941302
It did seem one potential cause was sleep disruption or having trouble sleeping and that they can sometimes occur naturally before a person goes to sleep but if they are unable to sleep then they can be a problem? Have you noticed any form of sleep disruption? It might be worthwhile to speak to your doctor about this. If they see any specific reason for concern they could run a sleep test.
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Avatar universal
I tried searching but I could not find any source that is reliable.  I found the wikipedia article on it but it has a bunch of warning things at the top about the article's reliability.
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