i am bipolar, the only time i experience mild hallucinations

 was when i was on the wrong medication. if i would have

 been having them all the time, my guess is i probably

 would have been diagnosed as schizophrenic instead.

Medications are certainly one causation for the hallucinations in Bipolar/Schizoaffective/and Schizophrenia. However, the severity of each of these diseases (including how insurmountable the current stressors are for the patient as well as the level of hopelessness, which will occur in both Manic and depressed (for mixed patients, which is the most severe level of Bipolar) and in depression for others'. I have Bipolar I, Mixed/severe psychosis. I have had Hallucinations of women standing by my bedside, waking me up, and then, with two fingers ripping their eyes from their sockets; I have watched people get murdered, and listened to a man who 'was my friend' for about six months, tell me what to do, including: have an affair, spend my wife & my entire savings, investments, and other... ...I believed I was God, and could end all war... and the list goes on and on. My point being that no two brains are the same, which is a beautiful, yet hard reality, as docs are struggling for new meds - however, bipolar is a brain disease, and the brain is so incredibly complicated, that all the docs can do nowi is continually research and treat the illnesses... however, Bipolar is more manageable than Major depression, as the docs know much more about bipolar than depression. Nonetheless, love and light to you all.

WS, Ph.D