Posted by lucie lu on November 20, 2008, at 13:34:17
In reply to Nightmares and hallucinations?, posted by JayMac on November 19, 2008, at 13:52:14
Jay,
What a horrible experience - ugh. I'm not surprised you freaked out, I would have too. But your T is right, it could well be the meds. That would not mean another diagnosis for you, it would be considered a side effect of one or more of your meds, alone or in combination with one another. Drug interactions are poorly characterized for any but the most common combinations. I was talking just this week to a friend about some medication he had tried for his inflammatory condition. It wasn't a psych med at all, and he's not a psych patient. But he started to hear voices! He said he'd turn around to see who was talking to him but there was no one there. It totally freaked him out. He called his MD in a panic - was he going crazy? Turns out that it is a rare but documented side effect of this particular anti-inflammatory drug. And sure enough, he stopped having them when he switched to another med. People also hallucinate from things like high fevers. So many physical things can cause hallucinations - they are not just a psychiatric symptom.
It seems reasonable for your T to want to rule meds out before treating your experience as a psychiatric issue. Plus she must know you well enough to know how upsetting it must be to you, given your mother's history. So I'm sure she's being extra careful. The fact that you've been having a string of nightmares recently is also suggestive of the same thing, a med-related problem. Think of it positively - if it's the meds, you can just switch to something else and your nightmares and hallucinations will go away!
I'm sorry you have to go through this. It must be particularly difficult for you given your family history. Hopefully it will all be attributable to physical causes and you'll be rid of them.
Take care, and hugs,
Lucie
poster:lucie lu
thread:864011
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20081120/msgs/864225.html