I saw a large grey panther yesterday, on the other side of the river! So I told my partner, gave her the car keys said goodbye to our friend and slept for an hour in the car.
Its not a regular occurrence but enough to scare a little, at least this time it was an obvious one as sometimes its not.
So my instinct says its the level of fatigue at the time and a small misfiring of the synapses which gives these hallucinations.
Anyone else with this most bizarre symptom?
Hi Driad I have plenty of 'visual experiences,' I wrote quite a few posts under the heading visual weirdness. Mostly internal but sometimes external. I did quite a bit of digging around to find out what was going on. There seems to be many explanations and the external ones following a brain injury can be linked to visual processing (do you get visual overload?). The neuropsychologist section of the book 'Mindfulness and stroke' puts it down to the brain filling in areas of a scene where the visual processing can't work on whats there in the environment. The brain apparently just pulls up anything from visual memory that may plug the gap.
I was diagnosed with Charles Bonnet Syndrome a few years ago after suddenly developing hallucinations in the peripheral vision of my left eye. I was clearly seeing images of factory workers operating machines in a setting of a bygone era.
Fearing being labelled psychotic by my flippant GP, I waited 'til my appointment for laser eye treatment so I could ask my opthalmologist's opinion. He, together with a colleague and after exhaustive health-related questions, made the diagnosis of CBS complex hallucinations.
CBS is associated with eye disorders and, if purely visual hallucinations (with no sound or smell) it isn't associated with mental illness but is often related to brain injury, eye disease or migraine. (mine come straight after a lengthy migraine attack).
I think I prefer your panther version BTW ! Hope you're feeling ok today Driad. Cat x
PS...... the 'nature' of the hallucination is apparently unique and not medically understood.
Thanks Cat, because of the RTC I received blunt trauma to my right eye and now affectively lost half vision, as the focal point is now a big grey mass. So that is interesting, will look into cbs.
Today it was a border collie in a JCB, the JCB was real! But shortly after I felt so fatigued I was sick to the stomach, pushing it too far again! But its interesting to see a link to hallucinations with fatigue.
Today is a bad day Cat, think I've pushed my loving partner too far, this is the closest to ending it we've been, and we've had many 😥. Damn this ABI and this new brain grrr...
I know it's overload which causes both the migraines and the CBS for me, and I've had less recently since respecting the warning signs of fatigue (just getting the hang of discipline after 8years! )
Try to step back and weigh up what you really value m'love ; if it's a toss up between something which can wait and a relationship .......make the other thing wait ! 🥴
Take care...
Cat x
Hi Driad,
I had quite persistent hallucinations in the acute stage of my brain injury. It was the same hallucination repeatedly, which was a very handsome dark grey wolf with the most beautiful green eyes.
It used to sit by my hospital bed, almost guarding me. I was quite upset when I asked the nurse (by writing on my whiteboard) “where has my wolf gone?” I think she thought I’d gone crackers! I still miss him now! It isn’t a symptom of mine at all anymore.
Call me crazy but I had a full sleeve tattooed on my left arm to honour him. He brought me comfort & made me feel safe, when the world and people in it were “new” and strange.
You might never get an answer as to why it happens but I do think that our brain tries to make sense of everything post brain injury and this can lead to visual disturbances/hallucinations, particularly when fatigued/suffering with sensory overload.
A wonderful story, thank you for sharing. I am now envious of your Power Animal friend!
Thank you Driad, hehe! It’s a nice reminder of how far I have come in my journey. ☺️
Struggles learning new information 
Having trouble coming to psychological terms with a brain injury. How do you do it ?
