Hallucinations & misconceptions of mental illness, a look at neurologist Oliver Sacks work
Hallucinations though commonly attributed to drugs or mental illness, while these can be factors completely "sane" sober people hallucinate sometimes for no perceivable reason.
Phantom vibration syndrome something many people in modern time experience usually after a year of carrying a mobile device, this is a common form of tactile hallucination caused by a form of phantom limb syndrome you can develop with glasses for instance or in this case a mobile device.
Diminished sensory input
As a relative of people that suffered from schizophrenia, alzheimers, dementia, and several other metal disorders i have always found this subject fascinating. Later in life this fascination caused me to learn more about this some what taboo subject. The work by Neurologist and author Oliver Sacks is fascinating focusing on visual and hearing impairment causing certain disorders often wrongfully labeled as hallucinations indicative of mental disorders.
In the video above 👆 Oliver Sacks brings our attention to Charles Bonnett syndrome, when visually impaired people experience lucid hallucinations. He describes the experiences of his patients in heartwarming detail and walks us through the biology of this under-reported phenomenon.
Originally I encountered his work on a Vice channel off shoot called motherboard In this short video he discusses 5 common types of hallucinations. Since i first heard of him I have read 2 of his books
However He is a very prolific/successful writer and has published a great deal in his life, so the two i read barely scratches the surface.
When I was young experiencing my relatives with mental disorders there was a judgement by those unaffected that those afflicted where some how less than. Even my great grand mother who was shockingly nice and inciteful during her lucid moments had dementia and would hallucinate similar to Sundowning. Screaming about daemons violently attacking orderlies later in life once she had to be placed in a nursing home. Setting fires in her home is what finally spelled to us that we could no longer give her the attention she needed. I currently own and live in her old house as I ended up purchasing it when I turned my life around.
My great grand mother I later came to find out was a orderly in a local asylum originally named the Michigan Asylum For The Insane In 1911, the facility changed its name to the Kalamazoo State Hospital, this is the name of the facility when she worked there. I even have inmate journals that my grandmother has saved all these years.
My great grandmothers mental illness could have been prevented or at the very least not as severe. I'm sure many by now have heard of the flint water crisis, what you may not know is this problem far exceeds flint they just had the most severe immediate issues. Why does this have anything to do with my great grandmother? Simple I'm in construction as such I renovated my current house to code In doing so I removed not only asbestos actually quite common in this area so I know those properly certified to do so, but lead pipes as well. The township earlier this year notified me that its my pipes that where contaminated, outrageous fees and "proper" examinations later my commercial grade stainless steal piping wasn't the problem what they pinned on me they where at fault for. Officials now have to inform everyone our water is unsafe to drink, ingestion of heavy mettles such as lead is linked to mental illness such as dementia. Honestly my cannabis fascination/growing is what I have to thank for fixing at least my water, years before anyone knew it was a problem. Honestly I still worry with a 3 stage water filter carbon, oxide, and mineral.
I have no doubt they force children to drink worse Michigan is a very corrupt state. The slum lords of my town hate me I know just enough about proper building code to make their life hell they tried to price me out of my property by moving the main road an making my house commercial real-estate. My friends relatives and pissed off pot heads went to the town meetings and kept voting to over turn third try they gave up. To repay this kind gesture I have had 4 houses shut down an forced to get up to code. As well as 3 slum lords houses condemned, I'm not going to name these families but 3-4 families have a monopoly on this town. If I know people in their properties I visit or are relatives I note every issue they cant have in a up to code building a Rental cant be grandfathered in so they are forced to fix it in two cases they even sued them and won.
Got a little off topic sorry
Must of been all the lead I drank growing up, but the mental disorders suffered are never the afflicted fault. Sometimes its not even a mental illness I have hearing damage from construction sometimes my tinnitus presents as Pokémon game music I have had both Psychologists and physicians check this out. They said its just tinnitus and an over active imagination, and for what ever reason the psychologist said I have sociopathic tendencies which seems off topic but whatever. Until I encountered Oliver Sacks work I thought I was loosing it as it turns out my def ears are board. If you have felt a phone vibrate when its not even there you have hallucinated, maybe keep that in mind when you encounter those you would label menially ill.
Micro dosed My uncles Gorilla Glue #4 & yellow vein kratom maeng da kratom.
