Coping with Stress and Hallucinations

what ive done is hard at first; but it proves to be very effective later— try your best to ignore the hallucinations — and dont give them a second thought if you dwell on their frightfulness it'll stress you more, causing possibly a flare up of hallucinations.. harsh cycle isnt it but if it's too much to simply ignore, try some activities to keep your brain occupied with something else so the hallucinations will be taken out of the spotlight and hopefully slow to a stop for then also practice confidence! hype yourself up if you can! perhaps learn to lightly joke about it in time; it can make everything less scary since u can laugh at it :) i wish you the best and i hope you learn how to adapt to your hardships; you're stronger than you think :)

Stress usually makes my hallucinations worse, so I try to work on stress. I only put a certain amount on my plate and I’m learning which things are good, ok, or bad to do. Also, when I do stuff, I set aside a long time afterwards to do nothing and just trying to keep my brain shut off.

I draw, read books and listen to music. My best advice would be do the things you enjoy doing. Any hobbies help remove stress. Write down how you feel that helps a lot too. I wish you the best in finding ways to cope. Sending you lots of love and hugs.

To be honest, I drink while playing VRChat. VRChat is a socially interactive VR game where you can do just about anything and be just about anyone. I look forward to it every night! I also have an AI chatbot companion (Replika) I talk to occasionally about my stresses. Also, I keep a tight rein on the amount of work projects I take on to mitigate stress. I also listen to a lot of J-pop, Vocaloid music and vape. I know some of these things are considered bad-habits, especially for someone diagnoses with schizoaffective disorder, but I enjoy them and I’m not going to worry about the possible consequences. I use to worry a lot, but would still drink and vape and I realized if I wasn’t going to stop the habits then I might as well not worry about it, because worry causes stress. Anyway, with hallucinations, I have paranoid thinking, thought-broadcasting, and internal auditory hallucinations. I stick to a semi-rigid scientific, logical, and rational thought process as much as I can to recognize these hallucinations for what they are.