Voices in head?

Hi Everyone,

My daughter is 6 and has autism with a possible pda profile, she has behaviour that challenges with daily dysregulations.

I wanted to see if anyone had any experience of either themselves or someone that they know of who speaks to someone 'imaginary' after a dysregulation. My daughter always seems to deal with a dystegulation by having a conversation with herself but also seemingly to be talking with someone else...

She has had conversations with school staff who she told someone in her head tells her to do these things but since then has never mentioned it.

Earlier this morning she had a dysregulation and said that mum hates us. I asked her who we was and she said her sister, who had no involvement in the earlier upset.

Can anyone advise or have experience of this? What is the next step?

Thanks for reading

Parents
  • sorry but you need to question whether the autism diagnosis was correct on this and whether she has schizoprhenia instead.

    hearing voices is schizophrenia.... its understandable why she was diagnosed with autism at first because they are both very similar, but when its autism like symptoms added with hallucinations or delusions then its schizophrenia. once autism was considered on the schizophrenia spectrum before they seperated it and made it its own thing, just to give you a idea of how easy it is to mix the 2 

  • Thank you for your response.

    We have contemplated the idea of schizophrenia, however I am trying to gather as much info as I can on whether this is a PDA specific trait or indeed schizophrenia.

    Her daily battles mean that she will flip like a switch instantly and does seem as though she has 2 personalities. This is what is said to be know of PDA though, the jekyll and Hyde as they put it. 

    What does confuse me is the talking to another, but as another member has responded they too talk to the 'imaginary' so I am keen to look further into this 

  • I think you need to be careful not to conflate four separate issues that I perceive here;

    1. PDA ? SCHIZ ? = All I can do is tell you what my PDA looks like.

    2.Ability to switch instanly. = This is me.

    3. Two personalities. = This is not me.

    4. Talking to yourself or just out loud = This is me.

    I can 'slip like a switch' too - but can control it - I can display wholly different facades, quite convincingly, at the flip of a switch.  I have learned that this scares people.  I don't know the rules about "how far I can play up with you when we are 'friends'."  Malice is rare in me.  I am very rarely prone to anger - but can display it very convincingly if it is needed.  I do seething better !!

    My PDA is really unpleasant.  The defining factors for me is that it can affects ANYTHING, big or small, something that I really want to do or normally really enjoy doing, things that I'm really good at doing and things that I'm bad at doing,  or things I really NEED to do it - that triggers it.

    This makes me a little dangerously unpredicable - obviously !!  To hide this problem, I enjoyed 50 years of finding ways to explain away my reoccuring PDA by a variety of means - whatever was easiest or the next-best-thing to actually doing the thing.  It's a frigging nightmare.  Since identifying the PDA, I have been making slow by notable progress in managing myself more appropriately.

    In terms of the talking to yourself, it is probably my most benign characteristic.  Irritating for people who need to be around me when I work or think....but I have crafted my life to make that a bonus !

    Compared to my own experience, the only difference I can see is the "2 personalities."  Are there only two?

    I hope this is a helpful addendum to my earlier comment.  Please forgive me if I overstep....I am known to often......I'm autistic don't you know !!

    All the best.

Reply
  • I think you need to be careful not to conflate four separate issues that I perceive here;

    1. PDA ? SCHIZ ? = All I can do is tell you what my PDA looks like.

    2.Ability to switch instanly. = This is me.

    3. Two personalities. = This is not me.

    4. Talking to yourself or just out loud = This is me.

    I can 'slip like a switch' too - but can control it - I can display wholly different facades, quite convincingly, at the flip of a switch.  I have learned that this scares people.  I don't know the rules about "how far I can play up with you when we are 'friends'."  Malice is rare in me.  I am very rarely prone to anger - but can display it very convincingly if it is needed.  I do seething better !!

    My PDA is really unpleasant.  The defining factors for me is that it can affects ANYTHING, big or small, something that I really want to do or normally really enjoy doing, things that I'm really good at doing and things that I'm bad at doing,  or things I really NEED to do it - that triggers it.

    This makes me a little dangerously unpredicable - obviously !!  To hide this problem, I enjoyed 50 years of finding ways to explain away my reoccuring PDA by a variety of means - whatever was easiest or the next-best-thing to actually doing the thing.  It's a frigging nightmare.  Since identifying the PDA, I have been making slow by notable progress in managing myself more appropriately.

    In terms of the talking to yourself, it is probably my most benign characteristic.  Irritating for people who need to be around me when I work or think....but I have crafted my life to make that a bonus !

    Compared to my own experience, the only difference I can see is the "2 personalities."  Are there only two?

    I hope this is a helpful addendum to my earlier comment.  Please forgive me if I overstep....I am known to often......I'm autistic don't you know !!

    All the best.

Children