I thought I read somewhere that delusions and hallucinations were connected. But I guess hallucinations fade away faster? I understand it is the nature of a delusion to stick around. Mom won't give up her long-held beliefs:1. She's being filmed.2. Her neighbors are being attacked.3. Her siblings are plotting against her.4. The building she is in changes itself physically. Etc, etc. There are lots of delusions, mostly normal for dementia from what I've read.
However, she forgets about her hallucinations. I don't remind her of them, I prefer to let them go on by. But this evening she was in one of her lucid moments, trying to understand her condition and asking about symptoms, so I told her she had hallucinated people arguing in her former kitchen. She said, "I did??? When???" She has no memory of those events that were so traumatic to her that she mobilized her whole family and security people. Then I asked, "Do you ever imagine you see things now?"She said, "Yes. There are three faces in the window. They're plastic. They don't move."Then she told me everything she ate in the dining room this week, and every craft activity they had, remembering it all correctly. She recognizes all her caregivers at the MCF.
I'll go see her again in 3 days, and she might be looking up at the ceiling and conversing out loud with imaginary voices during our whole visit, like she's in a trance. I'm used to it. I'll smile and read a book or try to get her to look at a puzzle.
I'm glad she forgets the hallucinations. I wish they'd take the delusions away with them!
The brain is amazingly weird.
