I can't tell if what I'm experiencing is called a hallucination or something else.
I had auditory hallucinations once when I was very sick and had not been able to sleep at all for 3 days due to very violent coughing, and had a bad reaction to robitussin. I don't know if this is always how auditory hallucinations work, but when I heard something, I also knew exactly what it looked like without having to get up and look. Like, one of the hallucinations was that I heard a xylophone being played and I just *knew* that there was a man right outside my bedroom window playing it without having to get up and actually look. I was so convinced that I called my mother to complain about him.
I've experienced something that reminded me a lot of that *knowing* feeling. I've only experienced it twice, far apart in time, so I'm not worried it's something serious. I just want to know what it's called in case it ever happens again. The first time it happened was several years ago, at Christmas, my family and I were all seated around the table and reading out loud the Christmas cracker jokes. I was talking along when I suddenly knew that I wasn't me anymore. I didn't really have an idea of who else I could have been, I just knew I wasn't me. I don't know how to else to explain it. I was very scared that my family would realize I wasn't me too, especially when it got to my turn to read the joke. It lasted about a minute or two, and when it was my turn to read something suddenly clicked when I heard myself talk. That was my voice, I was me, and the sensation quickly dissipated.
The second time was just recently. I was taking a shower, not really thinking anything, and I went to wipe the water from my eyes. When my fingers touched my skin, I started to panic a little because I just knew it wasn't my face anymore. Everything felt suddenly too soft, and I was worried that if I pressed too hard, my fingers would go through my cheeks. I thought my eyes had sunken into my skull. I could see just fine, and I knew I could see just fine, but I somehow knew that my face looked completely different than it had. I had to calm myself down and touch my face again, and when I did it felt normal and the feeling went away.
Is this a type of hallucination? Is it something else?
Posted Sep 3, 2021, 12:04 AM UTC