Dead by Daylight from the Perspective of a Schizophrenic, and how BHVR handles Hallucinations

This post can be found in video form here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4ZIkJf4vzU

Hello! This is my first post on the forums. I hope I do this right!

To say a little about myself, I was diagnosed with schizophrenia a few years ago, and I live with constant hallucinations. After seeing the new Unknown's PTB and its power, it made me want to take a step back and think about how good or bad BHVR handles hallucinations in DBD, more specifically the Doctor and the Unknown, and how accurate they are to the real thing and how they make me feel as someone that suffers from them personally.

Starting with the Doctor, I feel like most people forget about this part of the madness system or just do not pay attention to it, but in high madness levels you actually begin to hear auditory hallucinations of an indescribable masculine voice, which I cannot make out what they are saying.

I will say, when on a high dose of antipsychotic medications, these auditory hallucinations are extremely accurate to what I personally experience. I too hear a scary masculine voice, very similar to what is heard in game. Though, when not on medications, my hallucinations are much worse, as they can get very loud - literally yelling - and they tell me to do terrible things. I am honestly really glad that BHVR went with the lighter approach to the auditory hallucinations and didn't make them too loud or violent, because quite frankly it may have triggered something in me if they were more serious.

Now, onto his visual hallucinations. I want to stress beforehand that everyone that experiences hallucinations in the real world experiences them differently. We all see different things at different levels of intensity and realism. With that in mind, the Doctor's visual hallucinations are not very accurate to my own experiences. I do not hallucinate colors, and my hallucinations are not as life like as the Doctor's are, as they look identical to his human model in game. Though, again, I am certain that there are people out there that would see his hallucinations as more accurate than I do.

With the Doctor, I honestly believe BHVR did a good job. I am pleased (is that the right word? lol) that the auditory hallucinations are so accurate. It is kind of jarring, honestly.

Now onto the newest killer on the PTB, the Unknown. This killer focuses more on the visual hallucinations that it can spawn as it traverses the map, and I will say right away, these are much more accurate to my own personal experiences. To get rid of my hallucinations in the real world (or in my mind I suppose is more accurate lol), I have to either physically reach out and try to interact with it, or focus on on it with my eyes and mind. When I do this, the hallucination will be come static-y and eventually dissipate into nothing, much like how you interact with the Unknown's hallucinations in game. Again, it is jarring to me how accurately BHVR has created these horror aspects.

All in all, I feel as though BHVR handled the hallucination mechanics in Dead by Daylight very well. More specifically the Doctor's auditory hallucinations and the Unknown's visual hallucinations. I want to stress that while these mechanics are very similar to what I experience, and yes my illness has brought me immense discomfort over the years, but I am not bothered by them in game when I come across them. I honestly just find them really interesting.

I do NOT want a pity party from this post, but I invite you all to imagine being me in my shoes. Imagine living life with the Doctor's auditory hallucinations playing in your head constantly, or sitting at your desk and turning around and seeing a visual hallucination staring at you and refusing to leave until you scare it away by interacting with it. I'm sure it sounds very weird, and probably scary (because it certainly can be), but I have lived with this illness for over 4 years now, and quite frankly I have grown desensitized to it. It is just part of who I am.

I apologize if this post was too long or if no one cares about this topic, the idea just came to me when playing the Unknown's PTB and to my knowledge no schizophrenia patient has made a video comparing the video game hallucinations to their real experiences. I dunno, I found it interesting and I had fun making the video and typing this out.

I sincerely wish you all well, and thank you for reading this far if you are still here. I hope to be here more in the future! Thank you.

😀