November 6, 2024
Welcome to The Climb, your weekly journey with Lifecycle Sherpa, where we explore Parkinson’s Disease, its symptoms, treatments, tips, techniques, and build a supportive and knowledgeable community.
This week’s trail leads us to… hallucinations (part 2).
Question: What can I do to help my hallucinations?
Answer:
- First, notify your doctor so they can rule out infections, urinary retention or metabolic issues.
- Discuss altering medications with your doctor
- During a hallucination, speak slowly, calmly and quietly to the person and limit extraneous stimuli (television, cell phone, music playing, etc.)
- In early stages during a hallucination, if the individual feels safe, try to discuss whether or not they believe it to be real and what about the hallucination lets them know it is not real.
- In later stages, if the individual feels safe, try to distract the individual back to something that is real, and do not try to negotiate the “realness” of the hallucination.
- NEVER ENGAGE IN THE HALLUCINATION.
- If the individual does not feel safe in their hallucination, try to keep them calm and allow them to leave the room or move to a safe space.
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See you next week!