How to Handle Dementia Hallucinations & What to Expect

1- Activities Ideas
2- What to say/do for specific Challenging Behaviors

Thanks for watching! In this video I'll share two of most common dementia hallucinations with examples of what they would look like based on what I've seen in real life working at a psychiatric hospital for dementia folks and exactly what to do and say so that they calm down quickly.

Make sure to watch to the end of the video to learn why hallucinations happen as a symptom of dementia based on what I have learned from the psychiatrist at my hospital.

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Visual Hallucinations

Visual hallucinations are one of the most common ones your loved one or client may experience.
Examples I've seen in real life are the most often are a dog walking around, bugs , a child in the room
Hallucinations are vivid and very real for your loved one or client.

They can happen at random but tend to be more prevalent in the late afternoon or evening as a part of sundowning. Hallucinations are also often triggered by objects in the room much like when you're falling asleep and see shadows that look like other objects. That is likely the experience of your loved one or client on a bigger scale

Auditory Hallucination:

Auditory hallucinations are also going to be one of the most common hallucinations you'll see. The most common auditory hallucinations I've witnessed are hearing someone they know calling for them (the most popular one), a dog barking, children laughing, random objects banging or moving or hearing voices in general.

I've seen auditory hallucinations occur the same way visual ones do
which is mostly at random or as a part of sundowning. or with triggers such as loud sudden noises

2 Ways of Dealing with This: Therapeutic Fibbing or Validation
Therapeutic Fibbing

There are some people in the camp of never lying to our loved ones or clients and others in the camp of therapeutic fibbing. I've personally tried both approaches and my personal opinion is that when you're dealing with someone who isn't in touch with reality anyways.

Therapeutic fibbing tends to calm them down easier and faster because you are fully immersed in their world.

Validation:
If your values are to absolutely not lie, you can calm your loved one or client with validation
which means repeating what they said and reassuring them but this may take longer and still end up with them becoming agitated.

My advice would be to live in their reality as much as possible and find an opportunity for distraction and take it if you can in order to avoid eventually denying their reality which usually ends with them getting upset with you.

Why Do Hallucinations Happen in Dementia

What most people don't know about dementia is that it physically changes the brain and brain chemistry as part of the disease process that physical and chemical change in addition to memory loss can bring about psychotic symptoms like hallucinations or delusions.

Hallucinations are especially seen in people with lewy body dementia but can occur as a symptom
for many other kinds of dementia. Contact your doctor or a psychiatrist that works with geriatrics for more information on your loved one or client.

[joeystroud]

I'm a geri psych RN. I love your videos. They remind me of their point of view when I'm getting frustrated.

[dorothy]

Validation Therapy. 100% . Even healthy people need validation when they are upset. Don’t we all need this type of validation for example when we break up ? We don’t want to hear excuses etc. dementia is something similar x200, it creates so much confusion and anger if you try to deny their reality. After few seconds they forget it so like you say, then you distract the patient. Oh gramma I love you so much I’m so sorry you go through this :-(

[sophrosyne]

My grandma was just having a halluicnation like your example . It was a big bird or a butterfly . I said, here, let me help you look for it . I look all over. Then I say i think I saw a big moth fly out of the room and im going to catch it but its gone for now so we can go back to bed. Scared tbe crap out of me because i heard her talking to herself and could hear her looking all over her room 😅 hopefully I get some sleep. Been a year and a half ( late stage dementia ) and im hoping this isnt the medication change that happened three days ago . 😮🙏 Thank you for yoir examples !! i gave her a hug and said Ill take care of whatever aninalls or bugs are bugging her 🥺🥴💁

[barbaramiller]

My mom: "My bed is on fire. My phone is screaming, can't you hear it? Make it stop." I take the battery out, still screaming... I try to show her the bed is not on fire by going to sit on it, total panic attack...

[youtubedocus]

This is a great video that explains oppressed people in a home full of dominant people who enable psychological tactics ( reverse psychology ). Ptsd patients with toxic people around them with toxic personalities as well as parents who teach their kids such techniques. In some groups they try and say that its beneficial in some way and even developed words like loca or loco further oppressing them into worf synchronizations and interactions as if to liberate them later in some way or another but actually causes more damage and negate it all together. Delerium, psychosis, and other mental illnesses become worse or developed if the correct information, isolation or any kind of dominant oppression occurs.

[HeathersJourney]

My stepmom when she has these episodes sees bugs. We started using (as it was easy to grab) febreeze as a "bug spray" since filled with water. And we have squished or stomped on many a "bug" this year. It's the most exhausting for my sister when it happens overnight.

[dementiasuccesspath]

Share in the commons what hallucinations you have seen as a caregiver!

[badrhiewes]

Thank you for information
God bless you

[TerryB]

Currently working with a friend who has Alzheimer's. She previously had her door locks re-keyed because she thought people were getting in. Now after all that, she thinks she needs to get new locks again because people keep stealing from her, she thinks. There's no way I want to take her on shopping trips for locks just because of delusions. Even if they were installed, she'd eventually see people taking things and want more locks etc. Any advice for this besides just changing the subject? Otherwise, it would be an endless time of shopping trips buying locks that are useless anyway just to placate a delusion.

[johnsuechandler]

He insisted the pontoon boat being towed ahead of us was on fire and I had to stop so he could let the guy know. He was so angry I didn't know what to do, so we got the driver's attention at the stop sign. He got out and walked all around the pontoon with my husband. Of course it was not on fire. What should I have done?