several years ago my mom started having hallucinations and paranoia. she thought her neighbor had cameras and microphones all around her property and was spying on her. she smelled strange odors coming from her neighbors house. she thought the neighbor was 'shooting her with lights' through the walls of her house. I knew something was seriously wrong but didn't know exactly what to do about it. she also had serious heart problems, and because this affected her condition I took her to the hospital ER several times, and just went along with her stories. finally, on one of the ER trips, a doctor tested her and diagnosed Alzheimers, and began treating her with medicine. she still has mild syptoms occasionally, but now things are much better. just the knowledge of what it is and how to deal with it makes so much difference.

I really think the answers are good. I work with alzeheimers and the therapy that works best is "validation' therapy. Entering into their world and allowing them to talk about their delusions and so on. One woman used a flashlight at nite when she had them and when the little men came out she would shine the light on them and they would go away, it gives them a sense of power to overcome this.

My father had dementia. There were times when he 'saw' people who were dead from his past. I let him see them and talk with them and joined in with him. He seemed happy to share that moment with me and his 'family'. He, also, relived WWII alot.

My 97 yr. old Mother has moderate Altzeimer's. She sometimes hallucinates that there's a mother cat w/kittens in her room. She saves food from her meals for them. The staff doesn't handle it very well. I try to go along w/her delusions and tell her the cats have to be fed special food, so her food isn't good for them. Trying to reason w/her that there aren't cats in her room only makes it worse. Only problem is that once she told me we had to take them to the vet b/c they were sick. I agreed that we would if they didn't get better (and then prayed she would forget). Thankfully, she did!

My husband, an Alzheimer sufferer, saw tiny people on top of a bookcase that came to within a foot of the ceiling. He was convinced they had the ability to just disappear when he walked close. I tried at first to tell him he was just imagining it but after a while I would just go with him and marvel with him that they had disappeared and I didn't get to see them.

It is important to have the person tested for cataracts or other eye/ vision issues as a link between hallucinations and poor vision has been demonstrated by a few studies.

Hallucinations are far MORE COMMON in people with Lewy Body Dementia than AD patients. Its easy to say Alzheimers as an 'umbrella' term for dementia when in fact there are over 50 types of dementia. I found The Lewy Body Association website and will be discussing that with the neuro next week.

Mezack@comcast.net I have been thru the hallucinations and the violent swings with my husband. After being injured, I realized I needed to do something. I took him to his neurologist and we discussed this. There is medicaton, that can help. It is used on a sliding scale basis until the effect is achieved. Today he is not longer speaking to people who are not here, but his violent behavior is also stopped. Keep looking and talking to your doctors, there is help for this. Good luck and God Bless you

Also, check out the medications your loved one is on, as a cause of delusions, agitation, etc. My brain injured husband became delusional and uncontrollable when he was secretly hiding his Efixorxr meds. This is one medication that a patient can not stop or reduce without medical supervision. He had to be hospitalized and sedated to complete the weaning process. Another cause of delusions or agitation can be new medications which are introduced too quickly after a previous one has been stopped. Medications can combine to produce unwanted results. As a previous poster wrote, always eliminate physical causes first.

Great responses. It is a really good idea to check the hearing and vision to rule out physical causes.

Also be aware that visual perception problems are part of the Alzheimer's disease process. People may see something but not recognize it and ascribe it as something else. It is common for people to see a change in the color of flooring to be a change in depth, like it's a hole or a stair step.

I had one lady who wouldn't come out of her room because of the 'snake coming through the window' across from her room. The staff was about to start her one a medication for hallucinations, because there was no window in that wall, only a framed painting. The painting was of a lake with a sinewy shoreline. The shoreline was her snake and the frame her window. She was misinterpreting what she saw, not hallucinating. Once we removed the picture the problem went away!

Once you determine that the hallucination is real, determine if it is really a problem. If it causes no harm or distress, that is one thing. However, if it causes the person distress or to do dangerous things, then meds may be in order.

i think all of these answers are good. but i have a 65 year old aunt. she just had knee surgery. she and i were like mom and daughter. well i cleaned her house every other weekend. she all of a sudden thinks i stole can soda drinks from her. she no longer wants anything to do with me. i promised her i never touched her drinks. she has had mini strokes in the past.she is on depression meds. ahe also had a mother that had same symptoms before passing away.what can i do?

Anytime my mom starts having real bad hallucinations like talking to dead people, little children, classmates from grammar school it is usually a sign of a urinary tract infection...