Eyes, Nose & Ears: when things aren’t as they seem

Did you know that not all hallucinations are visual? Neither did I, until I experienced the phenomenon. But let’s take a step back in time.

In my mid-50s, I was on a long driving trip and I experienced a visual aura for the first time. Sometimes called “ocular migraines”, they are a more common than you realize. Mine presented as a zip-zag pattern that started in one spot and ended in a full circle. It reminded me of a kaleidoscope vision. After seeing my ophthalmologist when I got home, I better understood what I experienced.

They often occur with no pain and normally disappear in less than thirty minutes. They can present as flashes of light, blind spots, zigzag patterns, shimmering stars, and spots. They still don’t completely understand what causes them and the stressors seem to differ from person to person.

The only impact I have seen is I can’t read while they happen. They distort the words too much for me to continue. Since they typically last twenty minutes, I just close my eyes and rest. Now that I’m in my 70s, I have noticed I now often get a headache for a few hours afterwards, but nothing too serious.

So on to the next hallucination — olfactory — or smelling things that aren’t there. It has an official name, phantosmia. According to the Mayo Clinic, “may occur after a head injury or upper respiratory infection. It can also be caused by temporal lobe seizures, inflamed sinuses, brain tumors and Parkinson’s disease.” The smells vary from person to person, but many report smelling cigarette smoke where there is none. For others it’s a chemical smell or burnt toast. It’s more common after age forty and more common in women.

 Medical News Today:
    Do you perceive smells that aren’t there? (phantosmia)

I have suffered from phantosmia for the last twenty years. Initially, I swore I was smelling cigarette smoke and thought it was coming from our new neighbors house. Over the ensuing years I’ve come to realize there is no odor and I am the only one smelling it. At least now I know why.

The third hallucination I suffer from is auditory, and yes, it has a name, paracusia. This one really surprised me when I researched it after discovering my olfactory issues were not my imagination.

It started in one room of our RV (a 41′ fifth wheel toy hauler), the bedroom. We have speakers in there so initially I wasn’t surprised to hear something. But the music wasn’t coming from the speakers and it sounded like a radio station, voices interspersed with the music. That happened several times over a couple of years, but I didn’t think much of it.

It turns out those with tinnitus may be more prone to paracusia. I have suffered severe tinnitus since my 40s — it sounds like insects/crickets all the time. But research has been more targeted at those with mental illness so I learned a less about this hallucination than the others. I don’t hear the voices clearly, nor the music enough to sing along. It’s very faint and it has only happened a couple of times in the last ten years.

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So there you have it — three hallucinations: opthalmic, olfactory, and auditory. Have you ever experienced any of them? There can be major medical factors causing any of these so if you do, please be sure to visit your local physician to discuss the issue.