Can someone tell me what this is?

[femcelloser]

Hi, horrendously depressed as always. This has been going on for months at this point. But I can't sleep, at all really. Most of the time its insomnia I think. Like yknow. Restlessness and stuff. But any time i try to. Close my eyes, to sleep. Or if I close my eyes for an extended period of time. My brain shows me like. Bad things to keep me awake? Like spooky faces? That really aren't "scary" but still give me. Insane fear and panic. Dead bodies. Sometimes its my body or whatever, if im deep in the suicidal ideation hole its usually my body in the way i imagine I'll be found. Just all kindsa things to. Force me panicked and awake?

I dont know if this is considered a hallucination or if my brain just hates me or? I dont know. Sorry if this makes 0 sense

 

[sadworm]

that also happens to me sometimes but it doesn't feel like a hallucination or anything. it's just like.. you close your eyes and then your brain conjures the scariest images it can possibly create just to torture you ? I have also experienced it with images of myself dead or my family members dead and stuff like that in all sorts of ways. it is a type of intrusive thought I think? it feels very out of my control when it happens and it's things that make you feel really gross and immoral especially when it's of family members or other loved ones. it's very anxiety inducing. it happened to me a lot when I was also suffering with really bad insomnia. I think it is anxiety forcing itself to be physically present even when you push it down every moment of the day. a way of your brain reminding you that you are not calm and things are not ok. it got better once I was no longer actively going through trauma on a daily basis (got out of a terrible relationship). based off of my own experience, it's somehow stress related just like everything else in life unfortunately. putting on YouTube when I slept helped me a lot when I was going through it though, and keeping a little light on. you just gotta find the ad free stuff. sleeping in pitch black darkness and silence made it worse for me. hopefully you can find something to lessen the intensity of it

 

[Cosmophobic]

Sorry you're not doing so well.

I think this has happened to me albeit rarely. Trying to get to sleep, maybe even drifting off, and a macabre or disturbingly surreal image pops into your mind and suddenly you're wide awake thinking about it.

I don't think it's hallucination. I know it isn't in my case but I have to reiterate it's never become a consistent issue for me. If it's happening night after night then I can see how it would become a problem.

Maybe desensitizing yourself could help? As in keep your eyes closed and gently remind yourself you bear no responsibility for the images that pop into your head. Just observe.

 

[tiltedcompass]

Sounds like a mix of intrusive thoughts, anxiety, stress and/or insomnia. It happens to me from time to time. I'm about to fall asleep, focus too much on the "black" when my eyes are closed and something horrifying appears (like a disfigured human like creature, for example. And they usually have disturbing or outright no faces).

I know this doesn't happen to you, but anxiety and stress also cause me to "hear" loud noises when I'm about to fall asleep. I'm aware they're not hallucinations, sometimes they're sounds from things that are happening irl (a man talking, for example), or part of a dream.

Whenever this happens, try to take deep breaths, do grounding techniques. Relaxing background music such as rain sounds also help.

 

[58Alice85]

the same happens to me, i can only ignore and to try to go to sleep again (or stay up the entire night)

 

[chudeatte]

I get the same thing. I think it's triggered by something like bad thoughts but sometimes it also comes randomly with no trigger. maybe its stress or intrusive thoughts or anxiety or insomnia or maybe all of the above, im really not sure but it sucks to deal with