hi, this is my first post on these forums, I want to know if anyone else is suffering from pareidolia, if you
don’t know what that is, it’s seeing faces or images in random patterns. over the last two weeks or thereabout i have developed this out of the blue. it’s not just being able to make myself see images if i look for long enough ( like everyone does with clouds when they’re young ), it’s almost instantaneous, i look at a pattern and see something within a couple of seconds. at the moment i seem to be seeing lots of devilish looking faces looking at me, or naked females in sexual positions. please let me know if you are experiencing anything similar. I hadn’t heard of pareidolia being a symptom of schizophrenia before. i have heard voices for the last six years, but this only started happening recently, I am quite freaked out and i haven’t had a chance to talk to my doctor about it yet, so it would be a relief if i knew this was more common.
Yes, i get that at times.
I see very detailed faces that are made of trees, light, and shadow sometimes.
Somebody made those trees im afraid.
I used to see weird faces in rumpled up clothing… Of course just about everyone sees faces in automobile fronts… My wife sees spiders though I don’t know if she sees them in random patterns or uniform surfaces.
I think I used to also hear things sometimes when I would be listening to white noise or TV static.
Probably won’t do you any harm as long as you can figure out some ways to not let it scare you… If you are feeling insecure you are going to see the world through the opposite of rose colored glasses.
I deal with this intensely, and have ever since I was very young. Even when I was a toddler my mom told me that I made her take a painting of flowers out of my room because of the “scary monster faces” in it.
I see things in the walls, in the light shining off posters, in any kind of pattern, in clouds. It can be very startling. When I close my eyes I see faces in the darkness often. They aren’t nice faces either, they’re horrible, deformed, demonic, etc.
When I was very delusional I thought I saw words in the clouds, and that it was God or the Devil leaving me messages.
I try to remind myself it’s just a trick of my brain. Sometimes I draw them, but careful with that because it can freak you out more.
I have experienced this before. It is depressing though, if it is a symptom of sz, because that means I’ll have experienced every symptom.
I had it once first thing in the morning. I saw a cat face in the floral curtains.
I didn’t know it had a name… I just thought it was me seeing things again. I do see faces in walls, curtains, trees, on and on… it used to really upset me and scare me.
But considering the faces never came out of the walls… I learned to just not be upset when I see them.
I sometimes notice cars have faces or electronics having faces just odd perceptions.
Hi,
I experience this to since withdrawing from my meds. Although I do not see faces, it’s usually detailed patterns, graphics or cartoons. These are created from real textures and patterns on flat surfaces. When it started happening it was very scary because it obscured my whole vision. Once I woke up to see the room made entire of fish scales and cellular structures.
However I quickly learnt this only happens when I am waking up (hypnopompic hallucinations) and apparently this can happen to anyone. After some more sleep it goes away.
If you are having these while wide awake then talking to your doc about medication might be an option. It could also be something which goes away on its own… My facial hallucinations have stopped seemingly for no reason.
Sleep and meds are important. But most of all remember that these images are just meaningless illusions and cannot harm you.
Most of the images I see are to do with things that are in my subconscious… So I try to avoid negative content such as horror movies etc. I keep mind free from paranoia through meditation. Talking about it with a family member helps as it usually gives some insight, and I usually realise it’s not always a symptom but a common complaint that everyone has.
You cannot choose what you see, but you have the choice over how you let it affect you. Good luck.
cool, thanks for letting me know it’s not just me. I’m finding it a bit difficult to deal with its like being in some kind of erotic horror film, as I said it just happened out of nowhere. trying to be brave but I feel a bit vulnerable, man if normal people knew the kind of things that happen to people like us, they wouldn’t be so quick to judge. there was a painting on my wall, its a famous print called “the kiss”, I just took it down because I noticed in the painting some demonic looking thing staring at me. thanks for the replies, i’ll talk about it with my doctor and see what he says. hope you all have a happy new year, take it easy.
The kiss is a very beautiful painting, and I think the artist’s intention was for to be quite erotic… but I can see how it could mess with your head, what with all the complex details in it. I know if I saw it while hallucinating it would mess with my vision too. I can totally empathise.
I wouldn’t be ashamed of hallucinating erotic imagery either… It probably means you’re human!
Also, the brain is designed to spot faces in things… A large part of the brain is dedicated to this.
This might not be entirely relevant, but I used to see the faces of people in the street morph into people I knew… Simply because they had similar hair or glasses. Very scary… It can feel like you’re in an alternate reality. I would also see normal people with huge demonic, staring eyes that followed me. This terrorised me for weeks until I learnt what hallucinations were. After I had the knowledge it seemed to stop. It just goes to show much of our ‘reality’ is generated by our brains and not our eyes… Our brains naturally want to make connections, and hallucinations are evidence of the brain becoming too creative.
I hope this helps.
I’m dealing with this now to the point where everyone thinks I’ve lost my mind. It started with a rock i found… and i became obsessed… now I see faces that I don’t want to. I want it to go away