So I googled this and I really didn’t find the answers I was looking for so I decided to search here.
Anyway I’m 21 now and when I was a teen if I ever watched a horror movie that scared me that evening I would be unable to sleep because it triggered violent auditory visual and tactile hallucinations. At the time I told myself there was a demonic portal in my house and that I was seeing demons. I eventually made a connection between the movies and my episodes but recently I have not had a hallucination in a long time so is it normal that I only get them in certain instances? Or should I be questioning my diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder?
Only movies with a paranormal theme trigger me. I guess that would be a certain instance? But I don’t have an answer because I’ve never looked or asked for one myself about the problem. All I know is movies that didn’t bother me before the illness bother me now, and only certain types. That is one of the symptoms telling me I have a mental illness. I hope it helps you some.
Every single person has different symptom triggers…You may be able to think ‘well told story’ and be okay…I do not watch a lot of NCIS stuff or horror movies either, just keeps my voices neutral.
I don’t think a movie in itself will cause psychosis, but it might trigger an episode in someone with pre-existing sz due to the amount of duress horror movies try to induce in the audience (in my experience anyways).
I do know that, myself, I can go a year, two years without a trace of positive symptoms. My first episode was rather small compared to the other episodes. I went psychotic at age 18-19 but managed to conceal it (okay, I rarely left my room, but I wasn’t hospitalized and my positive symptoms mysteriously disappeared on their own (they came back, though). I wasn’t diagnosed as schizophrenic until over the age of 23 because I hadn’t had positive symptoms since age 19 (and even then, I was convinced my persecution delusions were real and hadn’t told that to my doctor until I was already floridly psychotic years later).
For me, freedom from psychosis was an ephemeral, temporary bliss that came crashing down whenever I quit taking the medicine.
Yes. This happened to me all the time. I still get hallucinations like this. I think I watch Sweeney Todd and became convinced I was a cannibal because my food kept appearing as human body parts. It was hell, because I was hiding away from my friends–afraid I would harm them…I recommend avoiding horror movies if they affect you too.
Well this story kinda relates. One time I was listening to Pyramid Head’s theme from Silent Hill 2 and I saw him lunge at me from behind and to the side. I instinctively went to elbow him, but he disappeared the moment I would’ve hit him. Then my brain had time to process what happened and it was at that moment I knew Akira Yamaoka did a fantastic job with that music, if it can mess with a schizophrenia patient.
Violent movies and horror and spy movies… anything intense will freak me out and start the cycle.
Yes… I’ve had horror movies trigger some hallucinations…
The ones that really tip me over the edge is anything with a kidnapping in it… That is one of my biggest delusions and paranoia triggers… I loose my cookies if there is a kidnapping in a movie.
Spy movies trigger me too!! The weird thing is I am obsessed and can’t stop watching Homeland (ultra trigger since she goes psychotic while working for the c*a)
So, I watch an episode and then I get all restless and panicked, take a walk through the neighborhood with my mp3 player to calm down. Come back…watch another episode (repeat pattern)
interesting @SurprisedJ ! books yay movies no? Did you have particularly vivid visual hallucinations? I wonder if that’s why some people are super sensitive to images but not words (or internal mental imagery).
I also love watching stuff on high tech surveillance and then I walk around feeling like my brain waves are being monitored via wireless MRI, or that the tv is both a receiver and a transmitter and sends videos of me to the agency. Yes, I take anti-psychotics but my old thought patterns never really changed, just the lack of positive symptoms. I get kind of giggly in a mad hatter kind of way and feel like I’ve been a naughty girl when I watch stuff on surveillance or the c*a. Sometimes I even pop an anti-anxiety pill just to watch it, but for whatever reason, it scratches this itch I have. Weird, huh?! Me and spy movies— is a love hate relationship, perhaps I am also a little codependent.