What is Charles Bonnet Syndrome? | Life After Sight Loss 

my vision is impaired is from Encephalitis- infection of the brain. In the first couple of years after that I would see amazing things - the best being the sequined walls of my dentist's waiting room. I knew it was my brain playing tricks but it was such a delightful special effect - the sequins shifted in waves and ripples- that i just enjoyed it. But with a blink of an eye the walls were 'normal'' with the afternoon light throwing shadows of trees on the wall from outside the window

I haven't had that problem lately, but growing up in my teens when I started noticing my vision loss, I would see things that weren't actually there. Now the only visual hallucinations I have are flashes & floaters.

My mom was afraid to tell us of her visions. She thought we would think she was losing her mind. Most of her visions were a welcomed break from the darkness, tree lined paths, old barns, tiny people. Some were more disturbing.. Talk with your blind/low vision loved ones, Learning of this phenomenon that affects so many, could be a great relief. Thank you for the video. Would love to be part of an awareness campain for CBS

As if losing your sight isn’t cruel enough. These people have to deal with these hallucinations. The human brain is amazing yet cruel.

I am so glad I found this video!!! I have been having hallucinations for years, little dancing girls ( about 3 feet tall) in pink gingham dresses, a little barefoot dancing boy in corduroy overalls and a straw hat, an adult sized man and woman walking into my closet with me, a white dog walking through my bedroom - no dogs in my household and one of the scarier hallucinations was two clowns walking through my bedroom. I am completely blind in one eye thanks to an auto accident and bad surgery and the scariest hallucination was a large male hand coming from my right side and I thought it was going to cover both eyes, I turned my head and screamed and it went away. I get some sort of visitors almost every day , very often the little dancing girls and most frequently things come by to visit when I am sitting in bed reading in the evenings. I'm very glad to find this video because these hallucinations don't really scare me, but I was wondering where in the world they were coming from, I was really beginning to think I was losing my mind. My doctor wants to give me anti-depressants and I refuse to take them, I'm not depressed!! BTW, I keep wondering how the mind chooses what visitors to send,

Yes I’ve experienced it just once since I first became Visually impaired. But I know others who didn’t know it was connected to sight loss at the beginning and were really traumatised by it. They still find it difficult to cope with even with the reassurance that they are not going crazy!

My mom is suffering with this too. There needs to be more awareness to this. Drs don’t even know about it. Right now I’m looking for someone she can talk with. So sad to see her so scared!

It happened recently to my relative and she is at first panicked but she was aware that these things she sees are unreal or doesn’t exist. Her brain reacted by picturing insects that she already scared of & seeing ppl all around her room. She ended up by seeing a number of unprofessional psychiatries who gave her a lot of medications that led her to hospital in critical care unit. She is now in ICU and unstable as a result of wrong medication. She is also diabetic and have kidney Dialysis twice a week. So you can imagine the sever effect she is having now. I told doctors it could be this syndrome.. all I hope she gets well soon.

I have this and it’s very unnerving. Once I thought I saw a huge hole in the road. The whole road was a giant crater! but I was actually looking at a tiny puddle. I’ve looked at a house and seen a big wave of water covering it, and I’ve seen a huge spears of lightning coming towards me lighting up the sky and I tried to jump out of the way. I know this sounds crazy and it certainly feels that way too. But my eye surgeon says that it’s just that my brain is used to receiving sight and now that I have very little vision, my brain is trying to generate images.

I have dry macular degeneration. I have experienced hallucinations, often just a pattern of dots or circles, sometimes a strange person in the room. It usually happens when I’m just waking up or going to sleep.

I know this is a video from a few years back but I was just told that I have it and that it s normal and this came from my retinal specialist and it was nice cause he told me not to freak out because he knows I have anxiety and it’s normal and not to worry even if it seems like something to worry about

Same phenomena happens sometimes with hearling loss. The brain creates phantom sounds called tinnitus.

i can controle the alusanation. what i think i see but it keeps changing was diagnosed with stargarts when i was 9 and im now 29 the picture stays in the nidle of my vision just way way brighter colours.Thank you i thagt i was the only one that sees this i have been seeng what evr i think of for about15 years now

Well I'm glad this link was sent to me. When my vision went in both eyes. I noticed weird things especially when I was watching TV. So when I look at the television it's a 60-inch TV and I'm usually trying to watch TV through a thick sheet of Grey so I only see a little bit of the top left corner and that's still through Gray it's just not as thick. What would happen is if someone was talking or face was in zoomed in on I would start seeing another face beside the real face on the screen which look totally different. Or I would see just a pair of eyes or I would see one giant eyeball. And these would only last for like a second not even. It freaked me out at first but I knew they weren't real. If I was really sleepy during the day and I was about to fall asleep to take a nap I would open my eyes suddenly to see Blobs of colors squares and circles just appear but would disappear. And that scared me a lot, I thought something was wrong with my brain. But I've had MRIS and I've had the okay that everything looks good. It wasn't until one day my Mobility specialist was over and he mentioned something about Charles Bonet and somebody that he knew that's all the little blue people. I thought that was strange but I was intrigued and I asked him about it and it made total sense so what was happening to me. As funny as it sounds as soon as I knew about Charles Bonnet syndrome it all stops I haven't had a single incident since. I still see stars and rainbows but I feel that is dude I strain. So I will end this comment by saying Derek thank you for making this video you have surprised me yet again. Is there any topic you haven't done yet LOL

I think that with or without having sight loss seeing A pink elephant or a double Dekker bus in your living room would be rather stressful. I’ve never experienced anything that extreme. Although I have had instances where I look at a counter and see the toaster in it’s usual spot even though it’s not currently there.

Are there different severities? I don’t see things that aren’t there, but sometimes things I see just don’t look right. Faces and pictures, exaggerated patterns and curtains, sometimes the most simple things look like art. So, I’m not seeing little people in my house.

I've had flashing of like a bunch of different colored stars as I was losing my sight

I was seeing spiders and was like woah as i hate them. Then i seen a swan which turned out to be an old car bumper lol at first i was terrifues, thought i was going nuts. Then a lady from RNIB explained, i googled it and have now learnt to distract myself but wish the Alice in Wonderland feeling would go 😭

Thank you

my experiences with this condition are mild compared to others symptoms. in the day time i have regular “bad vision”strong corrective lens and i get by just fine.but at night say for instance indoors my paraphrial vision will start creating a textured drywall wall,if i turn my head that direction the wall is usually not there but 5foot father a way. when im out side i will see trees but then turn my head the trees are not there just telephone poles. im not seeing dragons or sy

Can sight loss also cause auditory hallucinations? I have a friend with macular degeneration who has visual hallucinations but also auditory hallucinations. She is mentally stable.

Do audio hallucinations occur with CBS?

My Mom is suffering from this. She had eye surgery. I need help.

I once mistook a girl at school with a trashcan

Are there any type of type of vitamins I can take to help me deal with Charbonnet syndrome

The music...why?? I came here through personal interest , its way to distracting .I'll go elsewhere thank you