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I think I understand what you are getting at, but isn't a visual/sensory experience of something that isn't really there an issue of thoughts as well?
Not quite. They both originate in your head, but delusions are just beliefs, whereas hallucinations is feeling, smelling, or hearing something sensory outside oneself that does not exist. People who have delusions often have either delusions of grandeur, in which they believe they are God, Jesus, the Pesident, or someone else powerful, or paranoid delusions, in which they think a non-existent enemy is after them.
Hallucinations are most often hearing voices that command the person to do something or tell them negative things about themselves. I once started hearing voices after many months of severe sleep deprivation. Rather than commands, the voices were incessantly asking me questions. "When are you taking a shower? Why are you wearing red instead of blue today? Why are you eating a hamburger instead of pizza? When are you going to get another job? Etc. . . Nonstop, 24-7 they would interrogate me about EVERYTHING. It was torture.
I talked to my psychiatrist about it. She was treating me for insomnia and bipolar. She was very concerned and switched my medication and sent me home with instructions that I contact her if the voices didn't go away or if they told me violent things. They went away once I started sleeping again, thank goodness.
Delusions are a distortion of actual events or facts being misinterpreted. Example: "That man in the blue coat is following me and can read my thoughts. He must be a CIA agent." (There really being a man in a blue coat.)
Hallucinations don't have to have any basis in reality. Example: "I saw a polar bear on the bus this morning and he told me I looked like Marilyn Monroe."
Last edited by nightlysparrow; 12-16-2016 at 03:02 PM..
No, A delusion is a fixed, false belief. We have all "heard" the doorbell ring, or thought someone called your name, or thought there was something on your shoulder (a bug perhaps), a hallucination, you really believed those things happened, but when you asked about them, you were told,' no, nothing is on your shoulder, it was the TV,' if you were delusional, you wouldn't accept that for an answer, but insist that the hallucination was real. That's the difference, everyone has hallucinated at one time or another, it just if you hang on to the belief. That's the delusional part, hope that makes sense.
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