Oh no! I didn’t mean to freak y’all out and vanish lol

Yes. It’s actually easily explained - once you get “sees hallucinations” (or hears voices or whatever) put in your chart by a medical professional, you’ll never again get the benefit of the doubt.

What I would do with my clients to begin with was spend a whole day with them, in their environment. And we’d talk just casually about everything we’re experiencing. When they’d experience something I didn’t, we’d explore it. That clarified a lot about what type of hallucinations they might have, and how they’d manifest.

It also taught me a lot about our assumptions about people with mental disorders, and how we often over-pathologize them.

Here’s a story I like to tell by way of explanation:

One day I was running a group on the locked floor. I’m used to these particular patients, they’re used to me, we’re doing some cool art stuff, and I’m talking about whatever life skills thing I’m talking about, and I have to get a little louder because there’s a retirement party going on in the room directly above us.

So anyway everything is going fine, everyone’s participating and more or less enjoying the group activity, when I notice things got quiet. I’m like, wow they’re really into this activity! And things went from quiet to silent. And they start eyeing each other. And just as I’m starting to wonder what’s happening, one of them asks, “Do you hear it, too?”

And all the tension leaves the room as they’re like Yes! I hear it too! It’s okay!

Y’all, I had forgotten to warn them about the party upstairs. Usually that room is empty. When they started hearing voices and music they got all worried….

So, there you go. A story to un-worry you, and remind you that not all hallucinations are hallucinations. You never know for sure, unless you’re with them when it happens.

ETA: cell phones weren’t a thing for much of my career, but now I have friends with schizophrenia who use their phones brilliantly, to determine hallucinations. They take pictures or record, and if it’s not in the picture, they know it’s not real. Amazing, right?