Grief Hallucinations | You’re Not Crazy!

It is common after the loss of a loved one or pet to experience their presence or to see, hear, smell them or feel their touch. In fact, people are more likely to have had such an experience than not. If you experience a grief hallucination, it doesn’t mean you’re crazy or that you’re having particularly complicated grief.

Grief hallucinations are experiences when a person strongly senses the presence of a lost loved one or pet or sees the person, hears them or their voice, or catches a smell or feels their touch. These experiences can be pleasant and comforting. However, sometimes, even if pleasant or neutral in tone, just having them can be unsettling.

If I have a grief hallucination, does that mean that I’m becoming psychotic?

People who suffer psychotic symptoms can experience hallucinations. However, no research has shown a link between having grief hallucinations and becoming psychotic later. One facet of grief hallucinations that often differs from those that present in the context of a psychotic disorder is that people having grief hallucinations generally recognize them as such. They are clearly not part of objective reality and the person does what is called reality testing. The hallucination is seen as something distinct from the contextual objective reality. In a psychotic episode, that reality testing is typically absent.

Do grief hallucinations complicate grief?

Complicated grief is a term that refers to a grief process that is not happening or resolving normally. While grief processes are widely varied and people who worry that they are not grieving normally usually are, in some cases, grief can be very long in duration or more severely debilitating than normal. Sometimes a person may have particular challenges in accomplishing one or more essential tasks of grief.

Why do we have grief hallucinations?

We don’t know exactly why people experience grief hallucinations. We do know that the longer a person has been in a relationship with the lost loved one, the more likely they are to have grief hallucinations. These experiences are difficult to study since—while common—they are fleeting moments impossible to capture in a controlled research study. They are thought to possibly be ways that we continue to relate to those we have lost. They may be constructive elements of normal grief. Some people believe that they are evidence of the continued existence of the lost loved one in some non-ordinary reality. At this point, we do not have a definitive explanation.

Should I do anything about grief hallucinations?

You don’t have to necessarily address having grief hallucinations if they are not troubling. However, if you are troubled by them or are having any issues with your grief process, it’s a good idea to consider seeing a therapist for support. Even normal grief can be debilitating. Normal grief can go on for a long time. Therapy can often support a person in working through grief more effectively. Often therapists can help a person normalize their grief so they don’t feel as crazy as they worry they might be.

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