Hallucination in Charles Bonnet Syndrome

Types of hallucination in Charles Bonnet Syndrome - There are two main types of hallucination that people with Charles Bonnet syndrome tend to experience.

They may see:

**simple repeated patterns

**complex images of people, objects or landscapes

Simple repeated patterns can take the form of grids, shapes or lines, which can appear in bright or vivid colours. The patterns may lay across or cover everything the person sees.

More complex hallucinations can involve people, places, animals and insects. Most people don't see hallucinations of people they know or past events they've experienced.

The hallucinations aren't usually unpleasant or threatening, but they may be slightly frightening when first experienced. The can sometimes occur out of the blue, and can last for a few minutes or several hours. They may be moving or static.

Simple repeating pattern hallucinations

Many people with CBS experience hallucinations of repeating patterns. These may be grids or shapes or lines, which can be quite vivid in colour, like bright green dots surrounded by vibrant pink squares. You may also see complicated brickwork or mosaic patterns that grow in size to cover more and more of your vision. People can also see patterns that look like a network of branches or roots from a tree, growing over everything they see.

People usually describe this type of hallucination as being laid on top of everything they see, or growing across any surface they look at. Sometimes people also experience patterns of distorted faces, which appear in their vision and can change shape or move towards them.

Complex hallucinations

The second type of hallucination people can experience are more complicated and include hallucinations of people, places, insects and animals. Like the pattern type of hallucination, these hallucinations also come in different types.

You may experience hallucinations where whole scenes appear, such as landscapes with waterfalls, mountains or a garden full of flowers. At other times, you may see individuals or groups of people. You may see people dressed in costume, like Edwardian families, Roman soldiers or small children in bonnets. The figures of people in your hallucinations may be life size, larger than life sized or very commonly very small. All these types of figures may move or remain still.

At times, the hallucinations may fit with the room that you are in when you experience them, so that you may see animals in your bed or people working in your garden. At other times the hallucinations can appear very odd, such as double-decker buses in your kitchen or hallway.

In most cases, CBS hallucinations don’t include familiar people or past events that you may have experienced. The things that you see are usually not threatening or unpleasant, but of course most people are frightened when they first start to have their hallucinations. Over time, the more you experience the images, the more comfortable you may become with them. You may begin to recognise similar things appearing in your vision, such as the same tiny people, or the same field of flowers.