My awake-dreams have a name
The correct term is pseudohallucination. I'm...a little frightened that this is a thing. But I guess it's reassuring that it happens to other people? Maybe?
After I wrote up the blood dream, and had the realization that I was hallucinating, I thought to look up the subject. The Wikipedia can be very helpful in that way. (And yes, I'm calling it "the Wikipedia" on purpose, in case anyone's wondering.) When it comes to hallucinations, they're false things that people perceive to be real. However, a pseudohallucination is something occurring that you *know* is false--a hallucination you know is a hallucination. The difference with the blood dream is that it was very, very vivid, and until I turned the light on, I thought it was actually happening.
(It likely won't surprise anyone that once I finished the angora bunny post, I felt totally drained, almost immediately went to lie down, and basically didn't get out of bed until 8 this morning. I slept with the light on the whole night, I was that exhausted.)
Here's what Wikipedia says about the whole thing. It's a short page.
Pseudohallucination
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A pseudohallucination (from Ancient Greek: ψευδής (pseudḗs) "false, lying" + "hallucination") is an involuntary sensory experience vivid enough to be regarded as a hallucination, but considered by the person as subjective and unreal, unlike "true" hallucinations, which are considered real by patients with psychological disorders. Unlike normal hallucinations, which occurs when one sees, hears, smells, tastes or feels something that is not there, with a compelling feeling or thought that it is real, pseudohallucinations are recognised by the person as unreal. In other words, it is a hallucination that is recognized as a hallucination, as opposed to a "normal" hallucination which would be perceived as real.
The term 'pseudohallucination' appears to have been introduced by Friedrich Wilhelm Hagen. Hagen published his 1868 book "Zur Theorie der Halluzination," to define them as "illusions or sensory errors".
The term 'pseudohallucination' was then further explored by the Russian psychiatrist Victor Kandinsky (1849-1889). In his work "On Pseudohallucinations" (Russian: "О псевдогаллюцинациях" [o psevdogalljucinacijah]), he described his psychotic experience defining pseudohallucinations as "subjective perceptions similar to hallucinations, with respect to its character and vividness, but that differ from those because these do not have objective reality".
The term is not widely used in the psychiatric and medical fields, as it is considered ambiguous; the term nonpsychotic hallucination is preferred. Pseudohallucinations, then, are more likely to happen with a hallucinogenic drug. But "the current understanding of pseudohallucinations is mostly based on the work of Karl Jaspers".
A further distinction is sometimes made between pseudohallucinations and parahallucinations, the latter being a result of damage to the peripheral nervous system.
They are considered a possible symptom of conversion disorder in DSM-IV (2000). In DSM-5 (2013), this definition has been removed. Also, pseudohallucinations can occur in people with visual/hearing loss, with the typical such type being Charles Bonnet syndrome.
Note that both "nonpsychotic hallucination" and "parahallucination" redirect back to this page.
There is also this, from the hallucination page: "Hypnagogic hallucinations and hypnopompic hallucinations are considered normal phenomena. Hypnagogic hallucinations can occur as one is falling asleep and hypnopompic hallucinations occur when one is waking up." There is a separate page for hypnopompic hallucinations, but this is a much simpler definition.
The more I learn about my brain, the weirder I get. ...Not sure how I feel about that.
After I wrote up the blood dream, and had the realization that I was hallucinating, I thought to look up the subject. The Wikipedia can be very helpful in that way. (And yes, I'm calling it "the Wikipedia" on purpose, in case anyone's wondering.) When it comes to hallucinations, they're false things that people perceive to be real. However, a pseudohallucination is something occurring that you *know* is false--a hallucination you know is a hallucination. The difference with the blood dream is that it was very, very vivid, and until I turned the light on, I thought it was actually happening.
(It likely won't surprise anyone that once I finished the angora bunny post, I felt totally drained, almost immediately went to lie down, and basically didn't get out of bed until 8 this morning. I slept with the light on the whole night, I was that exhausted.)
Here's what Wikipedia says about the whole thing. It's a short page.
Pseudohallucination
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A pseudohallucination (from Ancient Greek: ψευδής (pseudḗs) "false, lying" + "hallucination") is an involuntary sensory experience vivid enough to be regarded as a hallucination, but considered by the person as subjective and unreal, unlike "true" hallucinations, which are considered real by patients with psychological disorders. Unlike normal hallucinations, which occurs when one sees, hears, smells, tastes or feels something that is not there, with a compelling feeling or thought that it is real, pseudohallucinations are recognised by the person as unreal. In other words, it is a hallucination that is recognized as a hallucination, as opposed to a "normal" hallucination which would be perceived as real.
The term 'pseudohallucination' appears to have been introduced by Friedrich Wilhelm Hagen. Hagen published his 1868 book "Zur Theorie der Halluzination," to define them as "illusions or sensory errors".
The term 'pseudohallucination' was then further explored by the Russian psychiatrist Victor Kandinsky (1849-1889). In his work "On Pseudohallucinations" (Russian: "О псевдогаллюцинациях" [o psevdogalljucinacijah]), he described his psychotic experience defining pseudohallucinations as "subjective perceptions similar to hallucinations, with respect to its character and vividness, but that differ from those because these do not have objective reality".
The term is not widely used in the psychiatric and medical fields, as it is considered ambiguous; the term nonpsychotic hallucination is preferred. Pseudohallucinations, then, are more likely to happen with a hallucinogenic drug. But "the current understanding of pseudohallucinations is mostly based on the work of Karl Jaspers".
A further distinction is sometimes made between pseudohallucinations and parahallucinations, the latter being a result of damage to the peripheral nervous system.
They are considered a possible symptom of conversion disorder in DSM-IV (2000). In DSM-5 (2013), this definition has been removed. Also, pseudohallucinations can occur in people with visual/hearing loss, with the typical such type being Charles Bonnet syndrome.
Note that both "nonpsychotic hallucination" and "parahallucination" redirect back to this page.
There is also this, from the hallucination page: "Hypnagogic hallucinations and hypnopompic hallucinations are considered normal phenomena. Hypnagogic hallucinations can occur as one is falling asleep and hypnopompic hallucinations occur when one is waking up." There is a separate page for hypnopompic hallucinations, but this is a much simpler definition.
The more I learn about my brain, the weirder I get. ...Not sure how I feel about that.