Can someone describe the development of the Charles Bonnet syndrome before the official diagnosis?

Charles Bonnet is a trick of the visual centre of the brain similar to phantom limb syndrome, the person is "seeing" in the same way an amputee is "feeling" a limb that is no longer there. For the most part people know that these things are false messages, although I suppose dementia complicates things. Visual hallucinations are something completely different - from your other posts I wonder if that isn't what you are dealing with.