Mother 99 yo with CHF and CKD is in great AL facility, hospice level with constant attention from CNAs, nursing station outside door. I see her every day. She operates completely rationally, and carries on conversations with great vocabulary (she does get confused easily and experiences short term memory/exec functioning is bad). In the past year she has come out with random hallucinations lately about violence eg: being in jail (which came from a joke someone made), people being mad at her, and yesterday told me someone came into the bathroom and hit her because she didn't like the food (I know this to not be true). This really upset me because I, or someone we trust, could easily be next for her to accuse.
It's almost like: She has a bad thought and imagines being punished for it. My dad had dementia and imagined terrible things as well. He called cops on my sister. I was so thrown yesterday when my mother, otherwise rational, came out with this (she is also on extra diuretic and nebulizer right now with congestion). NP, etc. all say it could be temp. or ongoing, but I am just so thrown by it. How she can sound so rational but imagine terrible things (and then go right back to being content). Is this common to otherwise operate rationally, but imagine being hit or other people being hurt?
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Our solution was that one of her caregivers was good with animals, so she put a bag over the arrangement - so the animal couldn't get out - and took it out of the house. Caregiver put the whole thing in her car and took it to her house. Mom never mentioned it again and was no longer afraid.
You might have to get creative. Tell her that the person who was hitting people has moved, you saw the moving van being loaded. That the mad people are on vacation for the summer. Something she'll believe. You can't argue with her reality, but you can expand it on a level she understands to make her feel safer.
You shoulda seen that dragon. It was awesome. :-)
My brother had Lewy's and the hallucinations were REAL and very disturbing. Any anxiety situation made them particularly bad.
They could be brought on by any disturbing patterns in carpeting, marble wall, any sort of swirly patterns. His hallucinations ranged in his telling from fun to disturbing and he was a real raconteur in retelling them: everything from a pool party outside his window with a fellow in white shorts, towel over his shoulder and Elvis hairstyle, to immigrant woman being pursued and huddled in corner protecting her child, to violence and threats of same. He understood these weren't real after they occurred, as he was in early stages.
Keeping the anxiety levels low was about the only thing that worked for my bro. Once he was in ALF and I was taking over all bills and executive function he felt free and secure and suffered a lot fewer. He did not descend further into his Lewy's prior to his death from sepsis, something he personally hoped for.
I sure wish you luck. Don't have any answers. But you aren't alone.
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Also, you should ask her doctors. There can be a million reasons for hallucinations/paranoia…
Examples of causes: side-effects of medicine (Parkinson’s medicine, just as an example, is famous for creating nightmares/hallucinations/paranoia that can unexpectedly come and go)…
UTI…
Dementia…
Ask her doctor.
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