Migraine and hallucinations

Hi All,

Occasionally, I will experience some hallucinations during or just prior to a bad migraine. They are not scary- usually things in pictures or shadows just move around a bit. Normally, this does not last long- maybe 30 seconds to a minute. However, for the past hour of so, I have had them constantly. I know that they are part of the migraine and I know that my mind is intact. This time, it is just scary. I think it must be part of an aura to a really, really bad one.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

Pain free days,
sailingm

Can you describe a picture or shadow you've had in the past so I can better understand it?
I've always been lead to believe that hallucinations are very lifelike and auras are shapes and
distortions in your vision. Are your hallucinations lifelike?

I've had the just a few times.

One that happened two or three times is seeing spiders crawling up the wall or across the ceiling.

Another was more of a sensory (smell) hallucination. I woke up from sleeping soundly and was sure I smelled smoke. I jumped out of bed and woke my husband up and told him to help get the dogs--we had to get out of the house it was on fire because I smelled smoke. I searched the entire house and didn't find anything, the smoke detectors didn't go off, and the dogs remained sleeping. My husband went right back to sleep. It was scary. I even opened the outside doors to make sure there wasn't something burning somewhere in the neighborhood--nothing.

I think all of these occurrences were while I was on higher doses of nortriptyline. Once was maybe while taking topomax.

Becky

I don't know if this applies, but while I was on my way home the other week I saw a rainbow on the road. It was totally weird, also another reason why I don't drive LOL I know there could be no rainbow existing on the road but it looked very very real. It only lasted for a few seconds and then vanished. I have no idea why this doesn't concern me, but hey, cool. Rainbow. Could have been worse! I guess I just think i'm going crazy sometimes, and with all the migraines I was having I might as well have been!

That was during the time I was using a different generic topamax which had bad side effects and gave me horrible migraines within 2 days of getting it as my refill.

I also smelled a strong scent of sour cream and onion for a few minutes. It was also in the car just a day later. I asked my hubs if he smelled anything and he said no. I went promptly to the store to get myself some sour cream and onion dip and besides the constant migraine; was fine. I thought it was a craving!

I pass that stuff off because I see dots and stripes, go blind, and generally feel funny stuff all the time. I'd take rainbows and sour cream and onion smell any day over blind or other funky stuff.

Hi All,

Thanks for the support.

Here is what a typical hallucination might look like to me-
The easiest on to describe occurs if I am looking at a picture or painting. For example, I have a poster of Venice on my wall. It shows the shoreline, a gondala, and people eating at a cafe. If I begin to hallucinate while looking at the picture- the people eating in the cafe start moving around, the water turns into waves and the boats also move. It is very strange, very lifelike, and very scary.
The other type occurs when I am looking at objects or shadows. On the mantly in my apartment, there is a decorated plate, several pretty glass bottles and two vases. If I hallucinate while looking at that- the decorations on the plate seem to be moving-chasing each other around. Then the shadows cast by the bottles or vases seem to move and then either run towards the plate or just move around. Again, very life like, very scary.

I willusually get a strange look in my eyes-kind of a dazed stare when this happens. It is still scary and is usually the prelude to a horrible migraine.

Pain free days,
sailingm

What a great hallucination! sounds really lovely when a photo comes alive ... very Mary Poppins.

I have lengthy audio hallucinations of old time radio shows or high pitched whining. Not so much anymore. I wish you well.

I have had that several times. Like I'll look at a stuffed animal and see it's mouth moving as if it were talking. Or see something run across the floor. Almost always in my Aura phase I see cartoon like glowing shadows around people. ANd the smell ones...those are intense. One day I was sure a skunk craweled in our walls and died it was so strong, hubby came home....smelled nothing. Called my mom to come.....nothing. At work I smelled a strong odor of urine...so so strong, no one else smelled it.

Just temporary MigrainITY I guess!

Stillhurtin wrote: Or see something run across the floor. ....ANd the smell ones...those are intense. One day I was sure a skunk craweled in our walls and died it was so strong, hubby came home....smelled nothing. Called my mom to come.....nothing. At work I smelled a strong odor of urine...so so strong, no one else smelled it.

Just temporary MigrainITY I guess!

I've experienced both of these: mice scare the wits out of me, and every once in a while I catch something in the corner of my eye that appears to be running across the floor (I know there are no mice, because my husband has been so diligent with poison and my dogs have been keeping them away).

The smells happen to me ALL THE TIME. Just yesterday, I told my husband it smelled like someone urinated in our kitchen. He couldn't smell a thing. We have a linoleum floor so it would have been evident. This was about 1-1/2 hours before my migraine escalated again. Once the migraine escalated I didn't smell the urine odor.

Becky

I get very strong odor "hallucinations" during the aura phase. Mine smell like natural gas (skunk) or sometimes smoke. I'll wander around the house trying to figure where the smell is coming from. Drives my wife crazy when I'll pop awake and say that I think the house is on fire.

Occasionally, I'll get a strong smell of metal - copper or nickle.

During aura I will occasionally see small shadows and/or quick moving distortions in my peripheral vision that I think are mice or squirrels that have gotten into the house. One time it got so bad I was cursing the cat for not doing her job and looking for my ancient squirrel gun. LoL.

Never had a painting "come alive". I think that would freak me. Or maybe I'd just enjoy it, who knows.

It's always fun, no?

I get something similar to that in that things move in strange ways. They kind in undulate. My bookshelves, pictures, stationary objects kind of wobble. I know it is a migraine coming. ugh. I also sometimes get auditory hallucinations, and smells and tastes. The worst is the metallic taste I get sometimes. It's like I've been sucking on aluminum foil. That is always the harbinger of a really bad, usually long-lasting attack.

After so many years of dealing with these things I am no longer surprised by anything my brain does. I figure that if it doesn't last very long, no one else can hear or smell it, not to worry.... it's just another migraine. I am NOT going crazy!

If you can step back a bit and look at it objectively, it's pretty amazing what a migraine does to your perceptions. It makes me wonder sometimes if we aren't tapping into a slightly different or heightened state of awareness. doo doo doo doo... What are we really seeing, hearing, etc?
Alli

Alli,

Wouldn't it suck if the path to enlightenment meant migraine pain! Poo! Good point though. I never thought my odd smell thing was a hallucination. I thought it was always a craving or just who I was. I never realized that it didn't happen occasionally to other people, too. The seeing rainbow though, I thought I was all alone there. LOL