Child hearing voices

[Katiejasmin]

My 11 year old daughter told me last night that she hears voices. She has found this a very frightening experience, she said it started just this week. The voice says “I am here” or asks her to “come here”.
Over the past few months I have seen her change from being bubbly, energetic and tidy to now sleeping a lot, wearing dirty clothes and not really caring about anything.
She doesn’t have any special needs or health problems.
Sometimes she has a recurring dream about a stripy car trying to run her over.
In text messages to her friends she has used terms such as “mental breakdown” and “I couldn’t breathe when you told me that”
She has recently started sleeping on the landing (outside my bedroom) and not wanting to sleep in her bed.
She seems scared that she will lose one of us.
She is starting secondary school next week.
I don’t know what to do, how to help her. Thank you for listening.

Hi Katiejasmin,

We're really sorry to hear what your DD is going through right now - sadly we can't offer any professional medical advice but we wanted to offer our sympathy and give this a bump for you.

We've no doubt some of our users will be along to offer you their support and advice soon.

Take care and we hope things look a lot brighter soon

Hi OP, sorry to see you haven’t had a reply yet. I have an older daughter who started hearing voices (and eventually seeing people who weren’t there etc) from the age of around 12, which we now know is linked to anxiety. I will look for a link her psychiatrist sent for a website all about children hearing voices. The change in her personailty and habits would concern me. As a first step I would try to get her to speak to your GP. She might feel able to confide in her if anything traumatic has happened (not that it was the case with my DD but they said it could be a trigger). They might refer you to CAMHS (child mental health services) but they are so stretched you might have yo wait a long time to see anyone. We went private in the end, and she has been on meds for 9 months and no voices for the last 4-5 months (but that might just be because she hasn’t had to go to school!) I’ll have a look for that link and post it if I find it. It’s horrible for you and for her - take care xx

Here’s the link:
www.hearing-voices.org/voices-visions/

Hopefully it’s just a temporary thing brought on by stress of starting secondary, on top of what has been a rather shit year for everyone. But posting for info anyway as I know how scary it is to be in this position.

This is usually stress or trauma related and developing psychosis or schizophrenia is vanishingly rare at a young age and unlikely to be the diagnosis. However, the rapid loss of functioning and self care is alarming and should be investigated. She should have a GP appointment and a CAMHS referral. Good luck.

Sorry your daughter is so changed it must be heart breaking. I think since it’s persisted for months now, it’s not her acting out on a whim. I think you need to have her given a psychological/psychiatric assessment.
I have schizophrenia and one of its symptoms is hearing voices, voices that you cannot tell if they are real or not by yourself. I don’t want to worry you too much as there are other explanations such as over active imagination or pseudo hallucinations where the person hears voices but can tell those ones apart from real ones. Too, it is very rare for someone so young to develop it, although she is at the start of the window (after age 10). Another possibility is ASD many children go undiagnosed, especially girls until they can no longer mask and they have a mental breakdown.
But whatever it is, it would be best to have her assessed by a psychiatrist because the sooner what is going on is identified the better it can be managed and therefore the better her recovery will be and her life chances.
(My schizophrenia was caught in my teens by doctors and it hasn’t stopped me getting a doctorate and having a good career because it was caught early and well managed. So there is plenty of hope even if it ends up being a scary high stigma illness).

Your poor DD, it must be really scary. My DD started hearing a voice age 6 and it’s very unkind and critical. I’ve been told by many professionals that i shouldn’t be overly concerned and it’s very much related to anxiety and emotions. The voice is definitely worse when she’s worried.

I think your best option is to speak to the GP and see what local services are available. Also Young Minds have been amazing in terms of being supporting us as parents. It’s good that she’s told you, keep talking and looking after yourselves.

Thank you all for your help and kind words. It means a lot.

Thank you vinniepolis for the link, I will have a look at it now.

We had an appointment with the doctor yesterday, which was very helpful. He seems to think that she may feel an adult responsibility towards her 1 year old sister- she does like to help me a lot with her; such as reading stories and helping me at bath time. In fact she is often next to me “helping”.

her baby sister was quite poorly last week, which he thinks increased her anxiety and may have triggered the voices.
I hadn’t even considered this as a problem, but glad that we have spoken to the doctor.
Going to definitely have more 1-1 time with my 11 year old and less time doing baby stuff.
Will go back to doctor if things don’t improve.

Katie, I hope she has a good start to school. Can I suggest you tell the school nurse or pastoral team at school? You could say that the GP has highlighted that she might be stressed or taking on a lot of responsibility.

@Vinniepolis just wondering what meds the psychiatrist put your daughter on for hearing voices relating to her anxiety. Was this antidepressants and/or an antipsychotic medication? The link was very useful.

Thank you in advance!

@Wishful7415, she is on fluoxetine (prozac).

Thank you @Vinniepolis I hope she is much better now x

@Vinniepolis I found the link very helpful. Just wondering what kind of voices/sounds your daughter was hearing? Did she actually have voices talking to her or was it just the sound of voices (unclear)? Did her psychiatrist put this all down to anxiety and stress? Thank you in advance!

@Wishful7415 the voices spoke to her, mostly saying horrible negative things and very much in her head. Later on she felt like she could see and hear people/shapes, often quite frightening in their appearance. One of the earlier therapists I approached suggested she might be seeing ghosts 🙄... anyway, camhs said it was stress but offered no help with said stress, so we went private eventually and her psychiatrist also thinks stress/anxiety the most likely cause and the ADs have definitely helped...although going back to school will be the test.

@Vinniepolis thank you for your reply. That must have been really scary for her. I'm glad she is much better now and I hope she continues to improve even when at school x

Thanks @Wishful7415, hope you’re not going through similar and that this has been useful X

I'm aware this is an old thread but I'm a bit concerned about my 6 year old daughter. She has told me a couple of times now that she sometimes hears a voice that isn't her own. The voice isn't especially scary but usually just says her name. She was talking about it before bed tonight, I told her not to be worried and she shouldn't be frightened.

I found the posts above helpful, particularly the one about the 11 yr old feeling too much responsibility. My daughter is generally quite an anxious child. Plus, her dad left the family home a while ago. He lives locally and she sees him regularly as we have a set routine, but worries about being away from me. She misses me at school also. She gets upset when her dad asks to spend time with her but she doesn't want to, as she gets worried she is making him feel sad. And if she is spending time with him she is worrying if I'm ok. She's very empathic for such a little girl. I've told her that it's our job to worry about her, not the other way around.

I'd really appreciate any advice that anyone can offer. Feeling a bit down tonight.

@topoftheworld1 sorry to hear about your DD. It could be some form of anxiety or other issue but I wanted to mention this sometimes happens to me when I am dropping off to sleep it’s called Exploding Head Syndrome (ridiculous name). Some people hear a bang or a noise some people hear a voice I get my name sometimes like a shout in my head it does make you jump.
Something to do with the startle reflex I think. It might help to reassure her.
However if other symptoms persist get her checked by the GP.
My DD heard voices but it was to do with OCD and the voices are intrusive thoughts rather than just saying a name.