Hallucinations with general anaesthetic

[user4578]

Are hallucinations after a general anaesthetic a thing? Has anyone else experienced this?
I’ve had two general anaesthetics. First was an emergency and woke up in ICU. I don’t remember anything when I was asleep but do have some frightening memories from after, which I know can’t have been real.
Had to have another (very minor) operation this year and I found the bit after I woke up really scary again. Nurses seemed to think it was a trauma response but I’m wondering if it was the drugs.
Just trying to make sense of it all really!

Yes I’m pretty sure that’s a well known thing. Here’s a link to a leaflet about it link

Pretty common, nothing to we about.

Had GA twice, both times in emergency life threatening circumstances, both times had similar frightening experience. I believe it's common

Yes I had this too.

The first GA I had (decades ago) took what seemed like hours to come out of and I hallucinated piles of cash on my hospital bed 😀 I was anxious about it being stolen and was trying to get my mother to put it away.

The second one made me tearful but no hallucinations. Last two were like the best nap I’d ever had and no mood changes or hallucinations.

My reaction to GA is I'm hyper when I wake up, can't lie in bed, running round like a Duracell Bunny. I dread to think what would happen if I had an op where I needed to be in bed unable to move around, I would be like an unexploded bomb.

Hallucinations are fairly common with critical illness and on icu. The drugs we use for routine GA these days are less likely to be hallucinogenic than they were historically but post-operative cognitive changes (as a result of the whole package of the physiology surgery not just the anaesthetic) can sometimes occur…it tends to be more of a problem for people with vulnerable brains. Waking up a bit disorientated/weirded out in recovery is within the realms of normal and not necessarily a problem so long as it all settles down quickly and things start to make sense again. Post-op delirium/hallucinations can be a problem so it is always worth mentioning, at least so the team can be on the lookout for problems. A lot of ICUs offer follow-up for people who’ve had a rough time of it to help fill in the blanks/explain what was going on/help with psychological support if needed - may be worth exploring?