My mother is 93 next week

[pericat]

She has never believed in eating and drinking together at meals as she thinks this is bad for her. In fact she does not drink a lot at all - except for coffee and whiskey. She told me the other day she is getting hallucinations - she was convinced my husband was in her sitting room staring in her mirror and not talking when he was here with me and she would not even believe him when he got on the phone to her. She also saw a small boy beside her bed one night. Could the lack of liquid be causing this. She is also taking some medication (over the counter stuff) for her bowels - its a white chalky stuff that the chemist told me she should be drinking loads of water with - but when i said it to her I was told she knew better. Could all this be adding to her hallucinations ? She is due to be assessed next week followed by a day in the hospital in July - if we can convince her !!

[RATTER15]

Oh dear, didn't realise that Ratter15 hadn't signed off, so my post above has appeared in his name. Sorry. It was Carakeel who wrote this.

[wolf63]

I thought that Ratter was getting confused there.

I have suffered from hallucinations due to mental health problems - I was both amused and concerned at this. My psychiatrist did explain that, apart from mental health problems, dehydration was a major cause of the little detachments from reality. Your mum could also, maybe, have sleep paralysis. They can be pretty real and frightening.