Follow
Share
Read More
This question has been closed for answers. Ask a New Question.
Find Care & Housing
6 months before my mother pass she would all ways stated that her brother which had pass away about 20 years ago was sitting watching TV with her. I and the social worker would just listen to her believing that it was her disease. As months pass my mother became real delusion and her health decline. I could not care for her by myself and she was place in an NH. She only last for 6 month. All in saying with my experience with the elder I really believe this is a sign that life is towards an end , specially when love ones are seeing their decease love one.
Helpful Answer (0)
Report

What someone "sees" can depend on many things.
Delusions are based on something that exists; hallucinations are things not based on anything tangible--hallucinations are out of thin air.
Even medical personnel can miss this differentiation.
When someone is approaching the end of their life, they can see things, both or either of those. OR, it can be triggered by medications--so have those checked.
It can also be triggered by infections, like UTI's--so have that checked.
It can also be part of nutritional deficiencies--mental ills, psychotic breaks, etc. can definitely be made worse by nutritional deficiencies.
Chronic pain can send someone into seeing things, too.
If your elder is having a pleasant time, assess what might be causing it, for sure, but, in general, playing along with a pleasant thing the elder imagines, can help decrease stress; telling them they are imagining it, can cause more stress..especially if they cannot mentally process information very well anymore.
Example of a delusion:
==One patient kept seeing a monkey on the wall of his room.
None could figure it out, and it was distressing for him. So, I took time to sit with him, and ask more questions....where on the wall was it? What does it look like to you? I told him politely, that none of the staff could see it; to help, we needed him to describe it. With a few more questions, and physically pointing at the wall to find it, found the source triggering his drugged mind to form the image of a monkey on the wall: the TV bracket plate, with 3 bolts into the wall, looked like 2 eyes and a mouth to his morphined-brain.
Once he understood how that was happening, and what it really was, he was OK..no more stress...he was also motivated to get off morphine sooner than later.
Elders with compromised mental function, cannot follow or remember that kind of thought process as well. Therefore, playing along, as long as it is pleasant, can be helpful. If it's unpleasant, then some other solution needs used.
Helpful Answer (0)
Report

Yes, just go along with it. To say "he's deceased" would be cruel and unnecessary, I believe.
Helpful Answer (0)
Report

When my MIL was in the ICU a few days before she passed, she said she saw Jesus sitting across the room. Her daughter asked her what did he look like. She described a popular image that most have seen. She described it in detail. Then she said " When I saw him there, I knew everything was going to be alright." She never mentioned seeing Jesus or anyone else again. She died about three days later.
Helpful Answer (2)
Report

Nasmir: Yes, that is symbolism from above. Oftentimes, loved ones leave coins, symbolically, as a sign from above. It's quite common actually.
Helpful Answer (0)
Report

STEPHINA: Another valid reason for the "seeing of things" could be hallucinations from medications. That is quite common, actually. If an elder is dosed Morphine, they will experience visual hallucinations. Bear in mind that there are other hallucinations, such as smelling things that are non-existent odors, e.g. smoke.
Helpful Answer (0)
Report

How do we know he's not there? Go into her world and talk about him with pleasant thoughts for her. " But by the Grace of God ......."
Helpful Answer (0)
Report

Trying2doright, we took mom to a neurologist who did tests and a brain scan, and he told us she had Lewy Body dementia because of the hallucinations. (She's had them for the past 4-5 years and is now in a nursing home. ) The brain scan didn't show anything AFAIK, but nothing can be proven except after an autopsy. Mom took Namenda and an anti-depressant. She was never bothered by her hallucinations, they were benign, people she used to know or saw on tv shows, she was more puzzled as to why they were in the house and why they came and went so often.
Helpful Answer (1)
Report

Hi, Lassie, Thank you for your response. Mom's hallucinations and delusions have become quite real to her and very involved - at 94 she thinks her deceased godmother bought her a new car and a new piano. She is planning a refresher on driving lessons and reapplying for her driver's license and is going to go back to giving piano concerts. Some of her past is mixed in with her delusions and hallucinations for the future. Did your mom go into a nursing home because of the hallucinations and did she transition well? Thanks for the feedback!
Helpful Answer (0)
Report

LOL, trying2doright, God bless yr mom!... With the tentative diagnosis of LBD, my mom had all the usual markers of dementia, including incontinence, falling down, not knowing if it was day or night, and eventually not even knowing she was living in her own house. We put signs up all the room doors. She couldn't live alone, had used up most of her savings, bypassed assisted living, went on Medicaid, and was placed in a nursing home memory care unit... She lived in her house for a couple of years while the hallucinations went on, seemingly normal enough, but puzzled that people she knew were visiting, coming and going, even her parents who died decades ago. I would get weird phone calls all hours of the day and night, just wanting to chat, and mentioning that the Kardashian baby had been running up and down the hallway all day!.... She adjusted well to the nursing home, as far as anyone can tell. She never once asked about her house or going home, she is very good natured and the staff there loves her. Lucky for us both, huh? (There are some poor souls there who seem in such terrible distress!) She can't really follow a conversation and babbles about things in the past, but she still recognizes people....anyway, good luck with you and your family, God bless.....I kind of miss my mom. There were a few good years, and we had some good conversations then, before things got really bad.
Helpful Answer (1)
Report

This question has been closed for answers. Ask a New Question.
Ask a Question
Subscribe to
Our Newsletter