After undergoing two significant eye surgeries to address a detached retina, Alison Henthorne, a 59-year-old woman, began experiencing unsettling hallucinations. These surgeries left her with considerable blind spots, and soon afterward, she found herself confronted with visions of alien faces, demons, and various animals.

Once she returned home from the hospital, these disturbing images began to permeate her daily life. Although Alison was aware that these hallucinations were not real, the fear of losing her sanity was palpable. Her anxiety grew until she uncovered vital information about her condition through personal research.

Alison had developed Charles Bonnet syndrome, a relatively rare phenomenon where the brain compensates for impaired vision by creating vivid images. Importantly, this syndrome is not linked to mental illness or dementia, but rather is a visual response to vision loss.

“After my eye operation, I started noticing creatures everywhere,” Alison shared from her home in Bedfordshire. “I would see strange creatures with purple eyes, and then another would appear to float nearby.”

She described waking up to what appeared to be alien beings approaching her from the corners of her vision. One night, she even witnessed what seemed like a spaceship shooting laser beams in her garden.

“It wasn’t just bizarre; it was genuinely frightening and made me extremely anxious,” Alison recounted. “I was walking around thinking I was going crazy because I kept seeing these things all around me.”

Despite being aware that the images were not real, Alison was too frightened to share her hallucinations with friends and family, fearing they would label her as “crazy.”

Her online searches led her to articles about schizophrenia and dementia, but her only symptoms were the terrifying hallucinations. In desperation, she even sought a priest’s blessing for herself and her home, hoping it would put an end to the hallucinations.

“I was so scared to actually tell anyone about it,” she confessed. “I thought I was going completely mad. I even got a priest in to bless the house and me because I was so scared.”

After months of battling with these symptoms, Alison attended a check-up appointment, following delays due to issues at the hospital. While trying to find a way to communicate her experiences to medical professionals, Alison’s research led her to a charity aiming to raise awareness of Charles Bonnet syndrome, which brought her immediate relief.

“Just before I went back to the hospital, I Googled eye conditions, and Charles Bonnet syndrome came up,” she revealed. “I still didn’t know for sure until I went to see the consultant and I was still worried about telling him in case he thought I was crazy.

“I spoke to the consultant, who confirmed it was Charles Bonnet syndrome, but he offered me no advice or anything. Thankfully, I’ve been back to the hospital since and they are going to refer me to someone who specialises in eye conditions like this.”

Despite the lack of a cure, Alison’s hallucinations have lessened in severity over the past few months. She is now on a mission to raise awareness about the condition and debunk some misconceptions surrounding the syndrome.

“The whole experience has been absolutely terrifying and extremely bad for my mental health,” she confessed. “It’s not a mental health issue – it’s to do with the brain; it still thinks the eye can see.

“All these years I could see and now suddenly, I can’t – so the brain is trying to send images to the eye, but for some reason it sends bizarre images you can’t control. It’s a physical disease with a physical symptom and not knowing this can really affect people’s mental health.

“For me, perhaps it could have been recognised earlier, but it might not even have dawned on me that it was anything to do with my eyes. I want to make other people aware – I don’t want anyone to suffer what I went through.”