Delusions delusions delusions

Desperatedan

Registered User
Jun 26, 2018
17
0
Hi everybody,
Are delusions a part of dementia? My mother keeps hearing and seeing things! She said she could hear screaming outside last night at 1am.....i couldn't hear a thing?? And she says did I come I to her room and say something numerous times, and other delusions.
 

karaokePete

Registered User
Jul 23, 2017
6,534
0
N Ireland
My wife suffers with such hallucinations and delusions. At the moment I'm trying to get an appointment for a meds review as some meds can overexcite the mind.

There is also an issue with people with dementia having difficulty in separating dreams from reality or misinterpreting what they see/hear. I know my wife has difficulties with these things.
 

Helly68

Registered User
Mar 12, 2018
1,685
0
I agree, I think hallucinations can be part of the symptoms. My Mum (mid to late stage and living in a care home) cannot separate what she sees on TV (for instance) from reality and this also contributes, though it isn't a hallucination in the proper sense. The only thing I find that works is to listen to her, agree that whatever she is describing sounds distressing and offer distraction - change the subject, hold her hand etc Sounds rather inadequate given the sort of things she describes but it doesn't help (in my experience) to try and reason.
 

canary

Registered User
Feb 25, 2014
25,018
0
South coast
Delusions are very definitely part of dementia.

My mum was convinced that her husband was living with his "fancy piece" in the flat above her.
In reality her husband had died 30 yrs previously, there was no "fancy piece" and, in fact, there was no upstairs flat as she lived in a bungalow.
This segued into her believing that there was a school above her, the children made a terrible racket on the stairs and they used to come in and re-arrange everything.
 

APPLEANNIE

Registered User
Mar 20, 2016
19
0
My husband has delusions all the time.He keeps talking about "the man" who is telling him what to do. I notice this happens after he falls asleep and wakes up suddenly. He also keeps saying some woman is sitting in the armchair but its me.The most hurtful is when he does not know my name I find this very upsetting.He is also keeps on about money and that we need some from the bank although that is not the case.The other night he would not go to bed because he said he was frightened because "the man" was in the bedroom.I Reason tells me he can not help it but i get very emotional and can not help crying because it breaks my heart. We have been married 54 years
 

Responder227

Registered User
Sep 26, 2016
2
0
Delusions are definitely part of dementia. According to my mum, I have been in prison, dead, an impostor, and much else. None true I hasten to add! My siblings have also been up to all manner of nefarious tricks as well according to mum. We have now learnt to laugh about these things amongst ourselves and if mum talks about these things to us we change the subject - "Oh, really! That reminds me....."
Because timelines and events (either real or imagined) get mixed up in the persons head it seems that a way for them to make sense of what they perceive in their head is to explain it through the delusion. Mum knows Dad died and she does not see me that often so my absence is explained by me being dead. Then, when I turn up I must be an impostor (because I am dead). Or, if I am not dead, a long absence is explained by a prison term (no idea why!).
These are just a few examples of the weird things that get trotted out. So delusions are definitely a part of dementia.
 

Rosettastone57

Registered User
Oct 27, 2016
1,839
0
Hi everybody,
Are delusions a part of dementia? My mother keeps hearing and seeing things! She said she could hear screaming outside last night at 1am.....i couldn't hear a thing?? And she says did I come I to her room and say something numerous times, and other delusions.

My mother-in-law had hallucinations. We had all sorts from a man performing a sex act in her bedroom, to a man and baby always ringing her door bell ,to boys playing cricket in her back garden.
 

Trekker

Registered User
Jun 18, 2019
211
0
London
Hi everybody,
Are delusions a part of dementia? My mother keeps hearing and seeing things! She said she could hear screaming outside last night at 1am.....i couldn't hear a thing?? And she says did I come I to her room and say something numerous times, and other delusions.
Delusions are part of dementia, very distressing. Hallucinations- my mum saw a tiger last time, but wasn’t distressed by it- can also happen. If not due to delirium from urinary infection etc, they may improve with anti psychotic drugs. Mum was helped by risperidone. I foften fnd it difficult to distinguish between delusions and hallucinations. I can be pretty sure there was no tiger, so an hallucination, but when she says her dead relative visited is it an hallucination ordoes she think a carer is that relative. Important to know as you can get help with hallucinations but not delusions, Ithink. All so difficult.
 

Desperatedan

Registered User
Jun 26, 2018
17
0
Thankyou everybody it's so nice to know that this is all part of dementia and I'm not the only one going through it, it can be very scarey tho. Yesterday my mum thought she had missed a phone call and someone was trying to leave her a message and kept repeating her name, the phone didn't ring and the last person to call was me!
What would u call this type of situation?.
 

Gfeb

New member
Jul 14, 2019
5
0
I have just joined today after a very frightening experience on a train with my husband on Friday.We were returning from holiday in Dorset.My husband started hallucinating and wanted to get off the train.The guard and I were able to distract him but it was a scary time.
he was originally diagnosed with Parkinson's but the consultant now thinks it is more likely to be Lewy Bodies.We have been coping well until this episode.I feel as if our world is shrinking on a daily basis.
 

Andrew_McP

Registered User
Mar 2, 2016
390
0
60
South Northwest
I have just joined today after a very frightening experience on a train with my husband on Friday.
Welcome to the forum and sorry to hear about the reason that brought you here. I think most of us will have had similar experiences at one time or other with our loved ones, and for those of us limited to public transport it's not as if you can just pull over and deal with the situation in private. Mind you, sometimes a third party can have more success calming situations than we can ourselves.

Delusional episodes are horrible and they've definitely limited what I'm prepared to try to do with my mother; I don't even dare take her into town for shopping trips any more, she'd often get upset on the bus and refuse to get off without a major scene that delayed the driver. We have, however, recently got onto the client list of a local independent carer who's prepared to try all sorts of outings with us. It's opening the world up a bit for us again, and although it's now one of our biggest financial outlays, it's worth it.

I feel as if our world is shrinking on a daily basis.
The world does, inevitably, shrink as the dementia straightjacket tightens on a family. But, with help, some freedom can be regained. And although I may be suffering some kind of psychological disorder, once your wings have been clipped, the chances to flap them again -- even a little -- feel so much more precious.

Having said that, when life was getting a bit much for me in my working days in Kent I would finish a night shift, get on a train as soon as I could, and go sit on Hastings beach for a couple of hours before I had to go back and get some sleep before the next shift. I do miss that kind of freedom a lot, but now I have the freedom to play my guitar almost as much as I want (ie as long as Mum taps her feet), become a tat expert thanks to Bargain Hunt, and to type semi-useful stuff into internet forums. And I've learned to enjoy gardening as a meditative process, so I'm grateful to my mother's dementia for teaching me that.

What I'm saying, in a clumsy kind of way, is that sometimes shrinking horizons allow us to focus on things closer to home, things which can bring us just as much pleasure. Sometimes I feel like I'm in a zoo rather than roaming the plains, but at least there's only one lion to worry about here and she's currently asleep after refusing her 'morning' pills for the umpteenth time. :)

PS If none of this makes sense, I blame it on a cocktail of stress and lack of sleep!
 

Gfeb

New member
Jul 14, 2019
5
0
Welcome to the forum and sorry to hear about the reason that brought you here. I think most of us will have had similar experiences at one time or other with our loved ones, and for those of us limited to public transport it's not as if you can just pull over and deal with the situation in private. Mind you, sometimes a third party can have more success calming situations than we can ourselves.

Delusional episodes are horrible and they've definitely limited what I'm prepared to try to do with my mother; I don't even dare take her into town for shopping trips any more, she'd often get upset on the bus and refuse to get off without a major scene that delayed the driver. We have, however, recently got onto the client list of a local independent carer who's prepared to try all sorts of outings with us. It's opening the world up a bit for us again, and although it's now one of our biggest financial outlays, it's worth it.


The world does, inevitably, shrink as the dementia straightjacket tightens on a family. But, with help, some freedom can be regained. And although I may be suffering some kind of psychological disorder, once your wings have been clipped, the chances to flap them again -- even a little -- feel so much more precious.

Having said that, when life was getting a bit much for me in my working days in Kent I would finish a night shift, get on a train as soon as I could, and go sit on Hastings beach for a couple of hours before I had to go back and get some sleep before the next shift. I do miss that kind of freedom a lot, but now I have the freedom to play my guitar almost as much as I want (ie as long as Mum taps her feet), become a tat expert thanks to Bargain Hunt, and to type semi-useful stuff into internet forums. And I've learned to enjoy gardening as a meditative process, so I'm grateful to my mother's dementia for teaching me that.

What I'm saying, in a clumsy kind of way, is that sometimes shrinking horizons allow us to focus on things closer to home, things which can bring us just as much pleasure. Sometimes I feel like I'm in a zoo rather than roaming the plains, but at least there's only one lion to worry about here and she's currently asleep after refusing her 'morning' pills for the umpteenth time. :)

PS If none of this makes sense, I blame it on a cocktail of stress and lack of sleep!
Welcome to the forum and sorry to hear about the reason that brought you here. I think most of us will have had similar experiences at one time or other with our loved ones, and for those of us limited to public transport it's not as if you can just pull over and deal with the situation in private. Mind you, sometimes a third party can have more success calming situations than we can ourselves.

Delusional episodes are horrible and they've definitely limited what I'm prepared to try to do with my mother; I don't even dare take her into town for shopping trips any more, she'd often get upset on the bus and refuse to get off without a major scene that delayed the driver. We have, however, recently got onto the client list of a local independent carer who's prepared to try all sorts of outings with us. It's opening the world up a bit for us again, and although it's now one of our biggest financial outlays, it's worth it.


The world does, inevitably, shrink as the dementia straightjacket tightens on a family. But, with help, some freedom can be regained. And although I may be suffering some kind of psychological disorder, once your wings have been clipped, the chances to flap them again -- even a little -- feel so much more precious.

Having said that, when life was getting a bit much for me in my working days in Kent I would finish a night shift, get on a train as soon as I could, and go sit on Hastings beach for a couple of hours before I had to go back and get some sleep before the next shift. I do miss that kind of freedom a lot, but now I have the freedom to play my guitar almost as much as I want (ie as long as Mum taps her feet), become a tat expert thanks to Bargain Hunt, and to type semi-useful stuff into internet forums. And I've learned to enjoy gardening as a meditative process, so I'm grateful to my mother's dementia for teaching me that.

What I'm saying, in a clumsy kind of way, is that sometimes shrinking horizons allow us to focus on things closer to home, things which can bring us just as much pleasure. Sometimes I feel like I'm in a zoo rather than roaming the plains, but at least there's only one lion to worry about here and she's currently asleep after refusing her 'morning' pills for the umpteenth time. :)

PS If none of this makes sense, I blame it on a cocktail of stress and lack of sleep!
Thank you Andrew your wise words have cheered me up.