My mother "sees" imaginary people.

They had mom on Potassium too..but if she has dementia, like my mom. All the pills are going to get harder and harder for her to swallow. Mom has been taken off all other meds other than the ones that Hospice recommends for her comfort and care.

It's very common in people with dementia..but I would check first about a UTI urinary tract infection. That's what they will suggest first off when talking to a doctor about it.
But it's very common with the dementia. Mom would say things like..do you see the ants all over the counter? Or look every time I wake up the walls change a different color. She also thought my brother was coming and going into her bedroom. (But he lives almost 600 miles away.) She would swear that he was playing tricks on her. Mom talks at night like there is someone in her room. She says there are little boys hiding in her closet. It's just the disease and what it does to their brain.
I would first have him checked over by a doctor...like everyone else it could be an infection.

Thank you all for your comments. I've learned so much reading your posts and will take my Mother to the Doctor to see if she has an UTI....The only difference in your posts is that at night, she said they were sleeping with her and felt a hand touch her and when she reached over, she held the hand and got petrified to the point of screaming and I couldn't calm her down. I know several months ago, she experienced this and my friend's son; who is a Doctor, advised me that she may have a potassium deficiency. When I checked her medication, found out that they gave her a generic form of her big yellow potassium pill; which may have caused an imbalance; to which; we went back to her regular brand and it cleared up her hallucinations. Thank you everyone for your help. Now I can ask the doctor to check for your suggestions!

My Mom has started seeing imaginary people more too and it is getting my Dad down. Usually they are not anyone she knows. Just people and sometimes she doesn't like that they are there. How do you handle that? Her memory has been going for a long time now so I suppose it is the dementia getting worse. Still I had better get her checked out for a UTI she has had bout of that earlier in the fall. Didn't cause any imaginary people then, though.

my mother is 82 and she has been seeing two of her grandchildren. it is always the same two girls. she talks to them and walks around the house she says. she wakes up and they are gone. help!

Betsy,
Is your mother's behavior causing you any major difficulties with care besides the unsettling feeling it causes? A few months before they died, my grandmother and my father started telling me that family members who had been dead for decades were standing in front of them and were frustrated when I could not see them. I often wondered if these were the family members that they wanted and needed to see, or if they were just lonely for someone who shared their memories. I have also heard, as other people have just stated, that a UTI can cause these same symptoms. I always felt sad for my father and grandmother because they seemed so happy to see the people they talked about. My grandfather, however, was given too much pain medication in the sixties when he was hospitalized due to a hunting accident. He saw little green Martians until the family insisted that the pain control plan be changed. I think Papa preferred the Martians to my step-grandmother sometimes. :) Take care!

About a year ago my Mom was hospitalized for a fall. She was on a lot of meds (pain) at the time and she kept saying she was hearing voices in the hallway of people she knew. Then she would say that at night she imagined a lady in all white standing over her. The dr prescribed a pill for depression and those hallucinations left. Every now and then she tells me she thinks she hears my voice but for the most part, she seems fine now. At the time my mother was living alone and depressed. She's now in assisted living.

I agree with KellyBean about an infection exacerbating hallucinations. It is common for older adults, especially women who have a urinary tract infection to have hallucinations.

Lynz, might your dad have Lewy Bodies Disease, which is related to Parkinson's? LBD involves some of the same brain malfunctions, as I understand it, and hallucinations are part of LBD for many. LBDA.org has information. My mom has been having similar sightings for more than a year. Aricept has seemed to help a bit with her being amenable to being talked out of hallucinations. But in general we try to switch the subject rather than talk her out of them.
All part of living one moment at a time. Take care.

I do not know about all these new pills, but when my Dad and Grandma got to that stage, it was only a couple months later when they passed. They both had heart trouble in the 70s. I figured that that kind of mental state is brought on by lack of circulation to the brain as well as poor circulation throughout the body.

Hi there i wonder if anyone has any suggestions for me. My dad has parkinsons disease and over the past six months or so he has been seeing us (family members) when we aren't actually there, he says we've spent the whole day there sometimes but gets quite angry because none of us talk back to him he says we just sit with silly grins on our faces and then disappear gradually. I was there (in his mind) one day and he made me a cup of tea and brought me a chocolate biscuit!!!. I thought it might be just when he's feeling a little bit lonely but he does it even when my mum is there. Has anyone heard of anything similar or have any ideas what could cause it?

Thanks to each of you for the great replies and information.

My mother was sick the other day. She was doing the same thing and it was an infection. They put her on a great antibiotic and she is much, much better.

any bacterial infection can cause this, honestly. MRSA is the worst. my mom has had it several times. abnormal slurred speech, low voice, abnormal taste for foods. and other stuff im sure, but those are my moms symptoms.

I had heard somewhere that UTI's could cause this symptom. Thanks for reminding me of that. Dad has a doctor's appt. this week so I'll have it checked out. Doesn't it seem like there are so many things to watch for?

Boy that would be great!! And while they're at it they could live in the washing machine and help with the laundry!! No, we don't laugh at them but at what they say. Dad is sinking more and more into his own little world and he doesn't seem to come out as easily as he once did. I find that the more tired he is, the more deluded he becomes. And about the dreams - sometimes if dad has a dream he will swear that it was actually real. You can't tell him it was a dream. He doesn't believe you. I too pick my battles. It saves my sanity!

dahuser...
I am caring for my 97 year old mother. She was doing fine till she started seeing
other people. She had no medical problems besides arthritis. Come home one night
and she was rambling about people in her room. Decided to take her to the doctor and the diagnosis was UTI (uninary tract infection). They said that was a comon
symton. It could be that, so get that checked.

mam

dahuser.. ask your dad if he wouldnt mind telling the little people under the furniture to help sweep sometime. (thought you could use a little joke here and there)

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who is amused by some things that we hear older people say. I don't laugh AT my mother, but at what she says. If a comedian said these things, we'd laugh until our sides hurt, so guess it's OK to laugh a little at what we hear at home.

Betsy, thanks for the post. It reminded me of more thing i need to discuss with my moms doctor tomorrow. It doesnt happen all time, but ive noticed more frequently that my mom is imagining people are here. She comes out of her room or the kitchen and she says that her companion is here and if she and i had a good chat. is a little upset that she didnt get to see her. one night, she was upset and i ran in her room. seems a man with a dog was in there. she was SO upset that i would have the nerve to bring a man into her home(im evidently 12 again not going on 32). She insisted and still does not believe there was no one here. i keep trying to tell myself that these are just dreams, but when she came out of the KITCHEN that one day, it made me rethink.

I was going to talk to her doctor about her meds. Since i have taken over every aspect of her care, ive noticed meds that she has been taking for years. Isnt there anything new? anything for the dementia? it doesnt add up. so talking to your moms doctor about her meds is the first step. and yes, for now, unless your mom gets highly upset over something, sometimes leaving them in their little world is best. sounds horrible to some, but you have to pick your battles. with dementia this is going to get worse. theres no way around it.

I think that's a good place to start, with the medication. My dad was put on Aricept for dementia but I found it made him worse. If you go online and read the symptoms for mid-stage dementia, it lists hallucinations as one of the symptoms. When my dad was at his worst, he thought there were little people living under his furniture! I don't know if your mother has been diagnosed with dementia, but it explains alot. I've found the best thing to do is just ignore it. Sometimes it's pretty funny the things he talk about!

Betsy7, it's probably dementia as stated above but I for sure would check her meds to see if there is any possibility one or more of them are contributing to the problem. My mother went through this, I talked with her doctor then with the druggist and came to the conclusion a pill for depression that had been described some time in the past was supposed to have been stopped but got overlooked. We stopped it, the problem went away. I hope your solution is that simple, but it may be as dahuser stated. Sometimes meds taken over a long period of time seem to accumulate in there or start conflicting with other drugs and cause problems instead of solving problems. Good luck.

Betsy7 - This is common especially in people with dementia. My dad can carry on both sides of a conversation for a long time. He gestures and nods his head like he's talking to someone. If I ask him about it he just laughs and says he was talking to himself but I know he thinks he sees people. Sometimes it's my mom but here lately it's been his mom and dad. I don't think there is anything you can do. My doctor said this will get worse as the dementia progresses. I wish there was better news but this is what we're dealing with.