Alternative to Meds Center is a licensed residential treatment center in Sedona, Arizona. Our goal is to provide transformation to drug-free mental health, or in some cases, less reliance on medications that have troubling side effects. We approach each client as an individual, treating the whole person and meeting you or your loved one where you are in your journey.
About Drug-Induced Hallucinations
Many drugs are notorious for creating hallucinations during recreational use, particularly cannabis, cocaine, ketamine, psilocybin, DMT, LSD, PCP, and peyote. However, many such substances are capable of creating hallucinations even after they are discontinued – especially after long-term or heavy use. Drugs like methamphetamines and especially marijuana can cause lingering hallucinations or delusions for months after discontinuing the drug, a situation known as drug-induced psychosis. 5,8,11
Prescribed drugs can carry similar liabilities. Unfortunately, the very medications used to address mental health symptoms can create additional side effects of their own. Among the most concerning are medication-induced hallucinations, another avenue of drug-induced psychosis. These powerful and overwhelming hallucinations can be frightening, but there is a way out; thankfully, these manifestations tend to disappear with cessation of the medication. Where dependence has developed, cessation should only be attempted under medical supervision.
Learn more about hallucinations, what may causes them, when you should be concerned about yourself or a loved one, and how you can find relief.
Hallucinations as a Side Effect of Medication
The term “hallucination” is defined as sensing something via sight, smell, taste, sound, touch, or feeling that is imagined, but seems real to the person experiencing it. While the exact mechanics are unknown, hallucinations commonly occur in conditions such as Schizophrenia, depression, postpartum disorders, Alzheimer’s, certain eye diseases, sleep deprivation, subliminal and hypnotic suggestions, and more, 12 Hallucinations and disturbed or altered perceptions are side effects of many drugs and other neurotoxic chemical substances.1
As mentioned, drugs used recreationally are commonly found to cause hallucinations, but one source that many may overlook is pharmaceutical medications. This is why it is important to know and understand the side effects of any medication before taking it. Research from as early as the 1950s demonstrated that steroids, among others, could induce psychosis within a short time of taking them. 2 Since that time, thousands of new drugs have come onto the market and some of these can carry the same risks today. This is especially true of recreational hallucinogens such as ketamine that have been recently re-purposed for therapeutic use to treat depression. 13
