11 year olds delusional thinking

[Eaglemom]

My son told me tonight that he has been hearing voices... he says he is unsure if it an actual voice or more a feeling but “it or them” started by telling he must do something or something (trivially) bad will happen.
He is now questioning if he is the only real person in the world and said he feels like as he gets older he will discover some sort of a code.
He says he knows these things aren’t really true, although he is questioning things.
He has always had a degree of anxiety which is quite specific Such a s having to be places ridiculously early or he panics.
He also told me that if I ever tell
him or his brother off and leave the room he worries I am going to kill myself.
He is extremely intelligent, this has been obvious from when he was tiny, so I have told him his busy brain is just overactive and making things up when he’s not thinking about things.
Ive always had in the back of my mind he could be very borderline autistic, although the school would never recognise this as there is absolutely nothing they see that would indicate that.
I am hoping that this is not as drastic as I fear.. could this be a result of anxiety ...at the moment his general behaviour hasn’t been affected at all, without him telling me I wouldn’t suspect anything different has happened.
Do I need to see the GP about this? I know mental health waiting lists are years long.
Any advice please?

A lot of autistic children and NT children do not have the words or understanding to describe their inner monologue so say they hear voices, it pretty common. Random intrusive thoughts can feel very much like they are not coming from oneself. I would go to the GP and get on the CAMHS waiting list, they might be able to help him deal with these thoughts. He's only going to end up further down the queue the longer you wait.

Yes you do, and I’d get him assessed for ASD too.

Don’t rule out Childhood Schizophrenia - it can emerge around this age as children become more articulate about how they feel. ASD and CS can appear similad when a child has a high IQ so there’s often a lot of confusion in diagnoses. Regardless of the cause if he’s hearing voices I’d definitely be pushing for a referral.

I would call the GP as soon as possible for a referral to CAMHS and assessment.

Oh I feel so sick. I will definitely speak to the GP tomorrow. I am hoping to God it could be caused by something more easily treatable.

It's good that he's talking to you about it all, I'd talk to the GP, camhs referrals can take a long time but if the doctor feels it is needed it is better to be on the waiting list than not on it.

And obviously this is just an opinion based on the post but what you described maybe sounds closer to delusional thinking that is seen in OCD, like solipsism ocd.

@Ghostlight thats interesting because when I spoke to a SENCO teacher at the school last year about his anxiety she mentioned a possibility of OCD over autism but in a very non commital way and didn’t think at that point anything needed pursuing.
Thank you to everyone who has replied so far, GP call in the morning.

I think it sounds like OCD rather than autism.

Sounds like OCD to me, due to dealing with very similar with my daughter. But definitely worth chatting to your GP asap. Good luck OP. Hope you can get things sorted soon 💐

Thank you all, I spoke with a GP who is referring him to CAMHS. She said it sounds more like intrusive thoughts related to ocd, so I am hoping for not too long a wait on the referral to get some treatment underway that will hopefully help.

Great! If your DS gets worse be sure to call the GP because one referral gets him to a long wait list. They can move him up the list if his symptoms worsen and his case becomes more urgent, but the GP would be the one to tell CAMHS that.

My child went through similar but not exactly the same. Also extremely clever from a tiny tot( think complex calculations/ telling the time at 2/3)
We had anxiety over time/speed. Timing things exactly to the minute- speed travelled to arrive at exact prediction etc.
My own belief is ASD but we're not in the uk. Here he was treated for anxiety and ocd was mentioned.

ok thanks, will go back to them if needed then.

@copperchain your child sounds so similar to mine! Did the therapy for anxiety help? I hope it did

My daughter as the same, intrusive thoughts due to OCD. CAMHS were very quick to contact us, so hopefully the same for you. If you ever need to chat, you can always PM me ❤️

I was going to say OCD then saw you have an idea of a diagnosis. Also, 10% of us do hear voices and it's not always problematic.

Sorry Op but that sounds more like schizophrenia. Get him to his Gp & get a referral the sooner the better (not trying to worry you) but the quicker you're aware of what's going on the quicker he can be treated.

@Eaglemom
Yes, it did, very much so.
As a family we learnt about how people attempt to control their environment, and the actions of the people close to them to rid themselves of stress and anxiety. Alleviating the underlying causes went a long way to make this no longer necessary.

My DC had similar at that age (voices) but it had gone by the time we saw CAMHS (other anxiety symptoms still there) Agree with pp that it could just be a way of expressing inner monologue.

If you can afford it you might not want to wait for CAMHS , but get him a private therapist to talk to and help with strategies and appropriate level of challenge to gradually expand his comfort zone with timings, lateness etc. This based on comments from a family member who is a clinical psychologist.

I do think it is better to start sooner rather than later with this while ways of thinking are still more amenable to change. In our experience it took a few goes to find a good match therapist-wise. In-school help didn’t work for my dc as it made them feel different and uncomfortable but might for your son if available.

In a way it doesn’t always matter if he has a label/diagnosis, you can deal with the fact he is feeling anxious. Sometimes main benefit of a label is so you can be kind but address it, and he can be kind to himself about it. This can also be done without the label. There are also some good workbooks that we were recommended by LA support, can’t remember what but looking at bestsellers on Amazon should lead to potentially useful ones. It’s been a long haul but my dc is more or less coping at university and the general trend is definitely upward.

11 is a stressful time if he is moving from primary to secondary so it might be that. One of my dc actually found the predictability and strict timetabling of secondary really helpful.

all the best with it all!

You have all been so
helpful.

@copperchain thats brilliant that the help you accessed helped your child.

@RyanGoslingsTan i appreciate the offer of PMing if I need to, it’s nice to know I'm
not alone in this.

I will stay open minded as to what may or may not be, but am feeling much calmer knowing there are positive outcomes and it may not be the worse case scenario!

We are already working on anxiety, with workbooks and exercises, maybe that’s what prompted him to open up so much.
We will keep doing that and hopefully professional input isn’t too far off.

@Squirrelsonthescaffolding Unfortunately I can’t afford to go private, the GP thinks the wait will be a few months so in the meantime I will continue the workbooks and learning about it all and hopefully he will keep talking to me about it all.
The secondary school he will go to is renowned for being strict and very particular about rules etc, and most of the parents are worried about it but like one of your DC’s I think it will suit him to a T! Fingers crossed anyway!
I am so glad things are going in the right direction for you all.

The voices thing about something bad will happen if he doesn't do A,B,C.. definitely sounds like intrusive thoughts/OCD rather than an actual auditory hallucination - I should know, I used to have them myself around that age and I turned out ok - ish lol. I still suffer from bouts of OCD which is worse when I'm stressed but I am a fully functioning adult with a full life.

Ocd

yes the more serious needs to be looked at in terms of schizophrenia but it sounds like ocd, which can overlap with other things.

Cahms indeed.