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Teenager with Asperger's- Hallucinations

Cassie

Hi

My son is 17 and was diagnosed initially with prodromal psychosis, and later with Aspergers after a 4 month stint in a  day unit earlier in the year. I am reasonably confidant that this diagnosis is correct, because he was observed in a clinical environment amongst peers for a long time before it was made.

However, for around 3 years he has been having visual and auditory hallucinations also. He sees and hears somebody who isn't real. The consultant seems to think that this is all part of the ASD but I'm not so sure. I don't believe it is typical for people with autism to hallucinate. He has also suffered from delusions. He is currently taking Seroquel which he describes as 'turning down the volume'

I have a feeling that he might have co-morbid szchizophrenia, but I really hope he doesn't and that all of his disturbed thoughts are due to Asperger's. I'm finding all of this very difficult and have not had a great deal of support from CAMHS or anywhere else recently. He doesn't like to talk to me about any of this and everything I know I was told by other people- mainly my daughter. He forces me to leave the room when he's talking to his doctor about the hallucinations and has confidentiality which I also find very difficult as it limits my ability to help him in any constructive way. He has not told the doctor the full extent of his hallucinations and so I am worried that his diagnosis may not be complete.

any advice welcomed.

Cass

Parents

  • 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

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  • 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

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