Teenager with Asperger's- Hallucinations

My son is 13 and is going through the system to get a diagnosis. He is also very anxious about school and in the last month has been having lots of different seizures/ panic attacks/ hallucinations. He is going to have an initial assessment and will be looked at to see if he has any form of epilspsy. I am so sad to hear of others going through similar experiences, but it is good to know we are not alone. I feel so helpless and feel that the length of time everything takes is only making matters worse. I am clinging to my friends' advice that we will get through it and it will improve for him. All the best to anyone going through the same thing.

NAS8338 said:

My Husband age 53, diagnosed earlier this year with ASD, Also has Hallucinations, Visual, Auditory and  Olfactory. They were very evident Just before His break down and continued for months after. After looking back at other times when He has had these ''visions'' etc, We can now see that they occur when He is becoming overloaded/depressed and unable to cope.

Thank-you for your comment and validation of my experience (as well as others')

I have had three major "overload" nervous breakdowns - probably more if I cared to sift through the memories. Like your husband, the visioning/dreamstate crossover is much worse when under high levels of stress.

I have arrived at the personal conclusion that the chronic depression i have suffered from for most of my life has to do with the sensory overload of autism and is my body finding a way to permanently turn *down the volume* of the world around me.

I make use of a lot of timeouts, body awareness exercises, and meditation. The timeout time and the repetitive tasks I need to do to soothe myself have not been wholly appreciated by my cohabititave partners (ex-wife, ex-fiancee...). I use computer games as a fun way to regain a sense of order (they are repetitive and structured [e.g. the game civilization]), but it is often perceived as being fun time and slacking, not a time-out when losing it emotionally... I have been considering getting one of those small trampolines like at gyms for bouncing as an alternative that will also be good exercise and balance/physicality honing/practice (I have some balance issues that go with the perceptual differences)

I am 50. Was diagnosed with Asperger's at age 45. High functioning - hence diagnosis only at age 45 because of my own lifelong search for answers.

I am also synesthetic.

I have had what might be described as hallucinations (visual, auditory, olfactory, other sensory crossovers) for my whole life. I remember pretty much everything in my life, chronologically structured, since my 3rd birthday (some prior memories).

I conside the hallucinations i have to be crossovers from dream state to conscious mind. I wander back and forth between "conscious" and dream state. I am able to identify the phenomena that are dream and which are real. Always have - think of that place that is half dream and half real when you are falling asleep or just waking up. I can alter my dreams. I have a different reaction to drugs (legal and illegal) than most people report. I play with the crossovers now - it is kind of a personal game to play with my perceptions and consciousness state.

I thought I was crazy/schizophrenic since i was very young and hid my extra perceptions and crossovers so that i wouldn't get locked up. I was afraid that would be the response because of the extremely poor responses I got when i told caregivers about my differences in perception as a child.

I have been working on my "issues" for my whole life and have been extensively tested since childhood. My mother was a nurse and we were involved with a cooperative health care clinic my whole life (where I now happen to work), as well as with the experimental schools i attended - that is why all the testing.

I hope that this post will help people reading it react to the perceptual differences with a mind that is open to the atypicality in autism spectrum neurology, and that the so-called hallucinations/visions may not be a bad thing, just something to get used to. I personally think they are good sport. It is neurotypicals who get freaked out by all the different things I see that they don't.

Strange sensory phenomena are standard in autism - autism has, as a primary characteristic, sensory overload/differences. Be chill. Get to know your senses. Have some fun with it if you are able.

Addendum: for the record, i work in a clinic. About 12 feet from a psychiatrist. Friends and coworkers are physicians and counsellors (including former cohabitant partner). I have been tested for stuff constantly since an early age because of being high intelligence and also having social issues in school. So I am NOT an untreated or undiagnosed schizophrenic

Son has apsergers, nearly 15, been sch refuser for a while. withdrawn from every activity, and wishes to stay at home each day.

Been Camhs today, and medicine prescribed. But my main worry is son is hearing things and seeing things. Any advice if this is part of the spectrum or am i looking at something else. Been told its because his anxeity is so high.

I have both auditory and visual 'things' happen. They could be illusory, I have no way of knowing, but whatever the explanation, it happens. The last time I tried to tell my Doctor about some of the 'bad' things I was being told to do, they tortured me. I got 'sectioned' which was terribly damaging (they put their hands on me and locked me up - arghh!) and means I can no longer talk about it with a medical professional. I've had various people trying all sorts of powerful drugs on me for a long time, none of them worked, but many of them badly affected my ability to function as ME, and were far worse than the 'symptoms' (I prefer to call them 'facets of my condition') they were meant to 'treat'.

We need to discuss this more, and openly. If it's a common experience, we can then drill down to consider whether it is an aspect of the condition, or the result of the mistreatment we get because of our condition.

Illusions aren't, generally, harmfull as long as no-one tries to make me feel bad about having them!

hi my daughter who is 15 is waiting for an aspergers assessment after 9 months out of school she went to cahms about 6 months ago and they said she needed to see a pshycotherapist because of anxiety,depression,suicidal thoughts and self harm but there was nothing that happen to trigger this snow ball and she didn't know why it all started but cahms couldn't offer us a pshycotherapist so they signed her off a few months later she self harmed badly because she couldn't cope with the feelings inside she gets easily overwhelmed so the reffered her to cahms again this time he spoke to her and not me she told him of the great troubles she has socially as she has no friends and she said she feels like she performing in a play to fit in with other peers she won't go shopping or into any public places unless it's night time and there nobody about she is also selective ut which complicates things she's started a new school tomorrow for a fresh start but it's not looking promising 

looking back at her growing up she has almost all the traits of aspergers as she's never been able to mix very well so thought it would be worth getting her tested she did the online quiZ the average normal person scores 26 she scored 44 which told you to seek help from your gp 

any other people kids had anything like this she has had hallucinations and heard voices they used to stop her sleeping they said this was caused by anxiety xxxx 

thanks for reading x

My 13 Year old daughter has been experiencing the same since she started high school and is also extremely anxious.  I am going to contact her educational psychologist tomorrow after reading this.  Maybe there is something they can do to help her manage her stress levels as it only seems to happen when things are tough for her.  Thank you for posting - it has been really helpful to know she is not alone x

Hi Sue

Thanks for replying to me, its sad but also comforting to know other people have similar difficulties and it is really good to be able to talk about it!

The medication is soley aimed at reducing his anxiety and they have assured us it is not psychotic.  This was hugely reassuring because we, like you, were very worried about schizophrenia etc when we first discovered it.  The medication reduces (although not completely gets rid of) anxiety and therefore the voices/faces go away because they manifest themselves as a result of extreme anxiety.  I have a half brother with extreme mental problems including schizophrenia (he is 60 now) and so we were even more concerned, however it does look as though our sons problems are not the same.

The thing that worries me most is the anger and the awful things he says to other people when he feels backed into a corner.  People with ASD tend to have a "specialist" subject that they willl want to talk about regardless of what other people want to talk about, unfortunately with him its not innocuous stuff like trains, but politics and religion!  He gets really wound up about world problems and says things that are not very politically correct!  He says he is a satanist (very scary initially until I looked on wikipaedia) but again I think a lot of it is talk to put people off and to make him appear "scary" so that people will leave him alone.

When he starts discussions on these topics at home we have been advised to listen and show interest but not challenge and then to wind up the discussion before he gets too anxious or wound up about it.  I ususally just change the subject or ask a question about something else to diffuse it.  Does your son have something that he always want to talk about?  I don't know much about PDA - I will have to have a look.  We are fairly confident with the Aspergers angle for our son, so many things fit, but as its a spectrum condition everyone is very different!  A lot of things from earlier childhood now seem so obvious!  He had a difficult start in life - surgery for a life threatening condition at 3 days old and again at 5 years.  The episode when he was 5 was very traumatic and seems to be the point at when a lot of his difficulties began.  Sometimes ASD type behaviours can be triggered by a large trauma like this.

Sorry I see to be rambling on!  Hope today was a good day for you - sometimes we just have to take it a day at a time don't we!

take care

Mary

Hi MaryR,

Thanks so much for replying, I really appreciate you taking the time to do so and sharing your sons story, there aren't many people who understand how distressing it is to watch your child go through these experiences and to listen to them describing it. However, it must be awful for you to also see him upset and blaming himself for losing them - I guess the ones that were nice to him were his 'friends' as he possibly doesn't get that from social interactions with his peer group from what you've said. Does the doctor think it is the meds directly blocking the voices or the fact they've reduced his anxiety that has caused them to go?

I'm also really interested to understand whether he was prescribed medication on the basis that they thought the voices were as a result of psychosis, as when my son first told me about his voices etc. I immediately worried about the possibility of schizophrenia and went to see my GP. Luckily I've had really good support from my GP and CAMHS (so far!) and from the outset they have said that his symptoms are very definitely anxiety related as he had been experiencing a lot of social exclusion and bullying at school. His anxiety had become so bad that he was refusing to go to school, dropped any activities and wouldn't go out as he didn't feel safe. He also was threatening to self harm/commit suicide.

We have tried a variety of stategies to lessen his anxiety levels - counselling from a CAMHS CPN, anxiety management group (CBT based), relaxation, art therapy etc. As time has gone on the voices have lessened, but I actually find it a useful indicator to judge his anxiety levels and being able to work out from that what needs to change for him. We did meet with the CAMHS psychiatrist to explore whether meds would be appropriate as the next step to help lessen his anxiety, but we were quite resistant to the idea due to his age - so although it's there as an option it's not something either CAMHS or we think is right for him at the moment.

Anyway, the reason I joined NAS rather than a mental health forum is because, as I said, it's becoming more and more apparent that the major reason for his anxiety is down to his daily struggle to 'read' peoples comments, intentions and social interactions. We've done an initial assessment and he does score highly on certain aspects of the assessment but an ASD/Aspergers diagnosis doesn't quite 'fit'. While trawling through this site looking for info and comparisons I came across the page about PDA which, having looked at it in more depth, I am convinced is the root cause of his problems and have raised with his CPN this week.

As far as anger/meltdowns go - although a great deal of his anxiety is school based (he is still in mainstream but very reluctant, poor attendance), he tends to bring it all on home! So we have frequent and prolonged rages over the most inconsequential of things. He can be verbally and physically aggressive towards myself, his dad and younger brother which puts a lot of stress on us as a family and I agree with you saying that everyday I wonder if he will be ok.

Sorry this has turned into an essay, I guess I'm relieved to be able to offload to someone who's got similar things going on, it's not like you can chat to just anyone about these issues! However, please don't feel you have to answer any of my questions unless you're happy to do so. Look after yourself, Sue

Hello, I have just registered too and my 13 year old is exactly the same as yours Sula.  His doctor at camhs has put him on rispiradol talblets for his anxiety and the faces and voices have gone away.  However this is now really upsetting him for despite the fact they were mostly threatening there were some good ones apparently.  he is now going through a grieving process for them and feels like he has killed his friends by taking the medication - so we have gone from the frying pan into the fire!

The camhs drs are convinced this is the right path to follow but it is stressful,  he is also on medication for depression and halfway to a diagnosis of ASD.  He cannot cope with mainstream school anymore and currently attends a special medical education centre where he studies part time,  it is vastly better than school but he still has social difficulties with the other kids there and when he gets anxious he gets into arguments and makes horrible remarks to people.  According to camhs this is a kind of defence mechinism to make people scared of him and to get them to back off.

Its good to hear someone else talking about faces and voices, I was so alarmed about it although now its been explained I feel better about it.  Does your son ever get angry at school?  All our sons angry and threatening behaviour has been at school (when anxiety is high) and we don't see it at home - thank goodness.  However its very stressfull - wondering if he will be OK each day.

Hi Cass,

I've just registered after reading your post, as I've come into this from the other direction and hope it gives you some reassurance. My son (almost 13) has been experiencing auditory and visual hallucinations for the last couple of years, which were initially diagnosed as being linked to extreme anxiety and not psychosis. He hears a variety of voices and sees people who can either be passive or aggressive. Most of his voices say negative or threatening things towards him.

After lots of individual and group work with CAMHS we're now in the first stages of assessment for an ASD as it's becoming clear that, in a very generalised sense, it's the stress and anxiety caused from social interaction (mainly school) that has caused these extreme symptoms. Obviously there are other aspects of his interactions which are pointing to an underlying ASD, but just wanted you to be aware that there are others out here - when I initially started looking for someone experiencing similar problems to my son there seemed to be no-one! Although they're too far from me to access physically, I found Voice Collective a really useful website and resource for both me and my son, so if you haven't already found them it's well worth a visit.

Are you sure he is hallucinating, Cassie?

There is a big difference between having an imaginary friend (which is not an uncommon coping mechanism for people on the spectrum) and hallucinating (which, as you correctly state, is not a part of having Aspergers).

My thoughts on Hallucinations, it could be a coping mechanism of this developing brain, being a teenager he is in the process of forming his own ego self and with the Autism may be forming an alter-ego as a way of a functioning ego, for what it is worth, Stanford Uni did an interesting study on Hypnosis and found that those people who were hypnosised to think only about the past events, became szchizophrenic. My gut feeling is it is Asperger growing pains, he needs a future focus.

I have Aspergers and when I was not well after a breakdown, I could not tell you what a human being was at that time,, just these PINKY yeti, long armed creatures walking about the place, strange looking!! My mind had lost all recognisation of the abstract world we take as granted as mind. In my mindless omni state, I could also change the reality of the universe, that was cool, just creating another world and walking into it. You will not find that in my doctors notes.

Doctors are only human, they do not have any answers, as one wiseman said "never ask those who are lost, to show you the way, only listen to your guidE."

We must respect all experience.

hi - this is so difficult, esp the confidentiality aspect. Was the consultant who diagnosed psychosis the same 1 who diagnosed aspergers? What about getting a 2nd opinion from another NHS Trust?  A consultant in that Learning Disabilities Dept wd be knowledgeable about aspergers.  You can't always rely on professionals in mental health to be as knowledgeable.   Also some advice from the nas helpline perhaps?  Sorry if I'm suggesting things you've already tried.  I can imagine how worrying this must be for you.  bw

Sorry, hallucinations aren't part of Aspergers. When I was little I used to constantly have imaginary friends, or believed my toys had feelings, but I was aware they were part of my imagination. Pursue other forms of diagnosis as most forms of autism sadly goes hand in hand with other conditions, in my case OCD. Hope things work out.