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Hallucinations and Delusional Thoughts

Ossom
Ossom Member Posts: 44
10 Comments 5 Care Reactions
Member
edited December 2024 in Caring for a Parent

Our father has been suffering from hallucinations and delusional thoughts for several years. Now, it has reached its peak, with him talking to someone he claims is "Alice."

He has been having full conversations with her, waking up with remarks like, "Wow! That's weird,"

"Hello?!?, who's there?,"

and "Wow, wow, wow."

He believes he sees demons and thinks that we are possessed by satanic monsters.

While his behavior is typically harmless, it has led him to threaten and scare the neighbors he used to be friends with, causing them to sell their house. He has accused them of sneaking into the house and stealing an imaginary box of money from under his bed. Our father has been observed sitting outside, staring at the neighbors' house and glaring for hours each day. He has also vandalized the neighbors' vehicles in an effort to prevent them from parking next to the house.

The neighbor asked if our father has any guns due to the discomfort they feel with his current behavior.

Comments

  • Jdbug
    Jdbug Member Posts: 16
    Third Anniversary 10 Comments
    Member

    Goodness. I'm so sorry! I have a friend whose mum also believes her children are satan. Its so upsetting to them. Big hugs.

  • jackywingfield
    jackywingfield Member Posts: 3
    First Comment
    Member

    Hi! I'm not sure if you ever got comfort or words of advice from this, but I'm sort of going through something similar. My dad was staring out the window yesterday waiting for his girlfriend "Nancy." My neighbor is trying to sell their house, and he accused my dad of making him lose a sale because he went over there and tried to claim they were on part of his property. The realtor wanted to take legal action, and I straight up was like my dad has Alzheimer's it won't hold up in court. My dad hasn't harassed them since, and lo and behold they still haven't sold the house. If they were a good realtor, they would've sold the house by now, but they're not and wanted to blame my dad. I know our situations are a little different, but I just wanted you to know there's someone out there experiencing something similar.

  • wordsmithJen
    wordsmithJen Member Posts: 4
    First Comment
    Member

    My dad, 84, hasn't named a specific person, but in just the past week, he has talked about people wanting him to move. He asks where all the other people are. It's happened so fast. My heart goes out to you. I am in a similar place.

  • john813
    john813 Member Posts: 4
    First Comment
    Member

    Will antidepressants help? The delusions just started and we don't know how to handle it...

  • coloradobear
    coloradobear Member Posts: 15
    10 Comments First Anniversary 5 Care Reactions
    Member

    I am sorry to hear you are going through this. I am in a similar place. My DW has been having hallucinations/delusions for several years now. The main focus has been someone has been threatening to kill her. Seroquel has helped a bit but she still sees this woman 'who is very mean' and wants to kill her. She sees people out on our sun porch and talks to people quite a bit. What gets rough is when she claims she saw me talking with this person or that. I explain I don't know that person but she argues with me. She seems to come out of it after awhile but I am dreading the day that she doesn't return.

  • member1201
    member1201 Member Posts: 20
    10 Comments 5 Care Reactions
    Member

    my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s about 5 months ago and she has strong delusions of infidelity thinking my stepfather is having an affair.

    She thinks his girlfriend comes into their home at night and brings things and takes things, mainly kitchen items she doesn’t recognize as her own. Also clothing and shoes but not as much.

    She has been on Seroquel for past 3 months and it worked to reduce her agitation and rage for a while but made her sleep later in the morning which she didn’t like. The neurologist modified the dosage and supplemented with smaller dosage during the day if she needs it. Well she refuses to take it and doesn’t need anymore medication (she also “doesn’t think anything is wrong with her”) We are back to not know what to do. We-husband/daughter & doctor-can it encourage and cannot force her to take meds as prescribed.

    Delusions are quite difficult to deal with. Sigh.

  • Penn34
    Penn34 Member Posts: 6
    First Comment
    Member

    My mom hasn't been officially diagnosed with dementia yet (we are working on it), but since late February, she's had delusions about my late Dad being alive, having a new Korean wife (FYI my mom is Vietnamese and my Dad was Black), and him coming into our house to steal things. The latter is especially annoying b/c in reality, she is the one misplacing things.

Commonly Used Abbreviations


DH = Dear Husband
DW= Dear Wife, Darling Wife
LO = Loved One
ES = Early Stage
EO = Early Onset
FTD = Frontotemporal Dementia
VD = Vascular Dementia
MC = Memory Care
AL = Assisted Living
POA = Power of Attorney
Read more