4 Phases Based on Anxiety Levels

Hallucinations experienced by clients, can vary in intensity and severity. Stuart and Laraia (2001) divided the hallucinatory phase into 4 phases based on the level of anxiety that was experienced and the client's ability to control himself. The more severe the hallucinatory phase, the more severe the client experiencing anxiety and increasingly controlled by hallucinations.

Phase 1: Comforting: Medium anxiety: pleasant hallucinations.

Characteristics: Clients experience deep feelings such as anxiety, loneliness, guilt, fear, and try to focus on pleasant thoughts to relieve anxiety. Individuals recognize that thoughts and sensory experiences are in control of consciousness if anxiety can be handled.

Client behavior:
a. Smiling or laughing that is not appropriate.
b. Moving lips without sound.
c. Fast eye movements.
d. A slow verbal response if the client is engrossed.
e. The client is silent and engrossed.

Phase II: Condemning: Severe anxiety: Hallucinations become disgusting.

Characteristics: Disgusting and frightening sensory experience. The client starts to lose control and might try to distance himself from the perceived source. Clients may experience humiliation by sensory experiences and withdraw from others.

Client behavior:
a. Increased signs of the autonomic nervous system due to autonomic anxiety due to anxiety such as increased heart rate, respiration, and blood pressure.
b. Narrow attention span.
c. Be absorbed in sensory experience and lose the ability to distinguish hallucinations and reality.

Phase III: Controlling: Severe anxiety: Sensory experience becomes powerful

Characteristics: The client stops stopping resistance to hallucinations and succumbs to the hallucinations. Hallucinatory contents become interesting. The client may experience loneliness if the sensory hallucinations stop.

Client behavior:
a. Will controlled by hallucinations will be more followed.
b. Difficulties related to other people.
c. The attention span is only a few seconds or minutes.
d. Physical signs of severe anxiety: sweating, tremors, unable to obey orders.

Phase IV: Conquering: Panic: Generally becomes fused in hallucinations.

Characteristics: sensory experience becomes threatening if the client follows the hallucinatory orders. Hallucinations end in a few hours or days if there are no therapeutic interventions.

Client behavior:

a. Terrorist behavior due to panic.
b. Strong potential for suicide (suicide) or homicide (killing others)
c. Physical activity reflects the contents of hallucinations such as violent behavior, agitation, withdrawal, or catatonia.
d. Unable to respond to complex commands.
e. Unable to respond to more than one person.

Hallucinations - Predisposing and Precipitating Factors