Why is this happening to my friend? hallucinating/seizures?

Question

well, i might as well give you the whole history..

my friend suffers from past trauma, i think really messed up things happened when she was a kid but she doesn't like talking about it

anyways, she was hallucinating last night.. she was telling me she was in a different room then the one she was actually in. i asked her to explain the room to me, and what she explained was totally different then what i saw.. she said the room she was seeing looked familiar, but she doesn't know why.

she felt really detached from her body. she was aware that it was fake, and she was scared. she said she didn't like the room she was seeing cuz it gave off a weird vibe and she didn't like it (the room from her past trauma?)

after this happened for awhile, she seemed a little better, and we were talking about other normal things (i was trying to keep her mind off it).

we were laying on the bed talking, and her eyes would spontaneously start fluttering really fast. she seemed to be unconcious cause she was unresponsive, but her eyes were open/halfopen and shifting back and forth rapidly.

this would last anywhere from 20 seconds to 10 minutes, and when she came 'out' of it, she had no memory at all of what happened, and she had a loss of time. (she felt only 3 seconds had passed by. when i told her she was gone for 8 minutes, she thought i was crazy)

this happened atleast 8 different times throughout the night. she didn't convulse at all, the only 'symptom' was the fluttering eyes (it was pretty creepy)

she's never been diagnosed with anything that would explain this. just depression, eating disorder, and some PTSD. i haven't known her that long, so i don't know if this has happened before. she says she's not sure cause she doesn't remember. i've never seen it before.

my question is, why did this happen? why did she hallucinate, do you think she has a psychotic disorder? or is it just linked to PTSD stuff?

and what was the fluttering eye stuff? were those seizures? if so, what kind?

is there a way to stop this from happening? what should i do?

thanks in advance for any responses

Answer 1

Sounds to me like she is having disassociate episodes (look it up online--I used to have them after a really bad time in my life as well). She really needs to talk to a mental health provider and get help for the PTSD. Try to talk her into getting help. Good luck.

Answer 2

Better have her go to a doctor right away. It could be linked to her past trauma, but it could also be a seizure. Either way, a physician can examine her and/or do tests to make sure.

P.S. Some people who have seizures have what you call post-ictal amnesia and don't remember anything. They only have a vague sense that time has passed. It could be happening for years and she's not aware of it