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Post ICU Nightmares / Hallucinations

Intensive Care (ICU) | Last Active: Jun 16 1:51am | Replies (36)

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@abbyweston

I was in the ICU off and on for 5 weeks. The first week I was in a medically induced coma and on ECMO life support. While on ECMO I had very intense dreams. This was almost 6 months ago and I still remember them. In them I kept going to the edge of death and just making it back. After they woke me up I had intense hallucinations for weeks. They were always about someone trying to harm me or impede my care. I couldn’t differentiate reality from my dreams and hallucinations. I still get horrible anxiety thinking about them and even writing this now. Every night when I go to sleep I still get hallucinations before I fall asleep and when I wake up during the night. Has anyone else experienced something like this? Has anyone found anything that has helped to overcome the anxiety? Thank you for reading and for any advice.

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Replies to "I was in the ICU off and on for 5 weeks. The first week I was..."

Hi @abbyweston and welcome to Connect. You'll notice that I moved your message to this existing discussion about hallucinations after being in the ICU. I did this so you can meet others who have had similar experiences and understand, like @kariulrich @deltakay and @jslate. Click VIEW & REPLY in the email notification and you'll be able to see past posts.

Abby, it must be so stressful to have these hallucinations, especially when you think people are trying to impede your care. It sounds like you are able to differentiate between hallucinations that happen before you sleep and dreams that happen while you're sleeping. Are they different? Do the hallucinations happen during the day too or only before going to sleep?