How do I get professionals to assess my disabled son's voice hearing?

5 replies

DyslexicPoster · 24/07/2026 08:43

My son who is 14 is disabled and under the children with disabilities social care team because of his disability.

He recently disclosed to me that he hears voices and that they tell him to do things that he doesn't want to do, got very upset and didn't want to elaborate more with me and he just refuses to talk about this.

I mentioned this to his social worker and then I also mentioned it to the doctor he's under because he's been titrated up for ADHD medication. the voices predate the ADHD meds by years so ds tells me.

The doctor said to me that it's very normal for people with autism to hear voices in their head and then it's nothing to worry about. I've spoken to the social worker about this and she said that I need to go with what the clinician has said because it's a clinical decision.

What worries me is it nobody's actually spoken to him and found out what these voices are telling him what to do. For example the social worker first of all said to me maybe the voices are telling him to hurt his little sister because he has in the past or hurt her.

however this doesn't sit right with me because if he didn't have a disability and I said my teenage soinvoicearing voices and they're telling him to do bad things I feel that people would at least be interested to have a conversation with him to find out what these voices are. I'm wondering if he's got psychosis or schizophrenia but the message seems to be well he's disabled to what does it matter. However when you hear about disabled people throwing children off of roofs of the take gallery and throwing children into crocodile pets you do think that maybe it does matter.

I have a zoom call with the ADHD doctor later on this morning and I'm wondering how do I word this with him to make him listen to me? Or do I just put all of these concerns for to my GP and let the GP decide what to do? It's the fact that he's under the children with disabilities team I think that holds us back but it does make you realise that he could have schizophrenia8 or psychosis and really that doesn't seem to matter at all

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LathkillDale · 24/07/2026 08:52

I’d speak to the ADHD doctor about it - presumably they are a child psychiatrist? They should know more about what children with ADHD may do, as part of their symptoms, and if there’s any treatment to help DS cope with it?

I agree with you, that someone ought to find out what the voices are telling him to do.

Iknowthatfeeling · 24/07/2026 08:55

With the doctor today I would lead with the question of can ADHD increase the likelihood of someone suffering with co conditions like psychosis or schizophrenia? What can the symptoms of this look like in someone with ADHD that might not be the same as someone without ADHD? How does this get assessed in someone with ADHD?

I'd also ask about the medication your DS is on, it is possible for any medication affecting the brain to implicate things like this and your DS might not actually be clear on when they 'started' if he is experiencing psychosis or even moments of psychosis. They may say the only way to test that though is to remove the ADHD meds and see if they improve which could take months and should only be done by a clinician, don't stop them without clear medical advice.

I'd contact your GP as a matter of urgency too. You are probably right this needs to be dealt with under a different team as well as your sons current team, but they might not be able to bring that team in easily. They will do a multi agency set up, when it comes from the agency that needs that done. For this situation it's likely the mental health team who need that multi agency set up, rather than the disabilities team.

I've focused on the ADHD element here as that's the doctor your speaking with today, of course ASD and ADHD together is a complex diagnosis in itself and may require a specialist for that condition if that's what your DS has. It wasn't clear from your OP so apologies if I've misread.

Original poster

DyslexicPoster · 24/07/2026 08:59

My son's disclosed to me that this has been going on for years since Juniors. he's only been on the ADHD medication since February of this year so the voices aren't related to the medication.

However I think this is one of the side effects of medication ironically and they're titrating him up incredibly slowly to monitor side effects. it's taken since February until today to get up to 30 milligrams so they say that being very careful to titrate him up because a side effects but the same time they're not really interested in the side effects if it not directlybecause of the meds? it's a water such a mess I don't know what to think

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Original poster

DyslexicPoster · 24/07/2026 09:05

Just to add this is Mindworks ( rebranded CAMHS) with a psychiatrist who only sees me via teams and hasn't talked to ds recently. I disclosed on teams without ds present and the Dr hasn't seen or talked to him since.

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Original poster

DyslexicPoster · 24/07/2026 13:21

Spoken with camhs again and they are insistent it's normal with autism without talking to him. So that's that I guess

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