Do your ND children hear voices?

[macap]

My DD10 has told me she feels like she has two sets of voices in her head, one tells her to do the good stuff and the other one bad stuff…

tonight she did something to her younger sister (19m) I knew she did something because my DD cried and then I heard DD10 run in to bed. I went up and my toddler was wet through with milk! She has put milk on her!

I am embarrassed to say I lost my shit with her and shouted. She has cried and told me it’s the voices and she’s sorry and that she cannot help it.

she is the most loving attentive girl so it really upsets me that this can happen! Honestly she will help anyone!

she is currently awaiting an ADHD assessment and is struggling with EBSA. According to her EP report ASD traits were also mentioned. (I don’t really see these however) please can someone reassure me this can be normal in ND people and it’s her impulsivity?

I am scared I’m raising a child void of empathy! It breaks my heart as like I say she is so attentive and thinks of everybody. :(

I think it’s highly unlikely she’s void of empathy. To be uncomfortably logical, you can’t choose a good nasty thing to do unless you comprehend the other person won’t like it. I’d be thinking she’s having some sort of intrusive thoughts and compulsions (perhaps it might be a form of OCD which is commonly seen in people with ASD).

The baby needs to be kept safe either by stopping dd1 getting out of her room or into her sisters. She’s still your lovely one, she just did the wrong thing. ☕️

Thank you that’s reassuring. It’s hard not to spiral sometimes. Intrusive thoughts have been mentioned before and I do think she suffers with some form of OCD though I don’t really know what!

I think I’d give her a big hug and tell her if that naughty voice tells her to do something bad she should come and tell you straightaway and you will help her tell the voice “no”. Poor little thing she must be a bit frightened. Luckily little ones usually believe mums are invincible.

This is more focused on OCD than particularly your situation but it’s one of a series which might have something that helps you help her

https://www.apa.org/pubs/magination/441A805

Thank you I will definitely take a look! I feel like we are getting nowhere with regards to actual help.. it doesn’t help that since school held her and blocked the door so I could leave she’s scared about enclosed spaces. She’s ran away from the gp surgery twice 😩

But she’s little and she will grow up and get better at many of these things. It doesn’t matter if she can’t do everything now. It matters that she is happy and loved and trying. It’s extraordinarily hard in the early years for people to appreciate just how hard it is for a very young child to reach over their difficulties and even try to keep up. We understand that little people can’t tie their shoes yet fail to appreciate they can’t think there way through difficulties we don’t even understand. She is likely to need more support than the average child, more love, more patience, more thoughtful nourishing parenting but you can do it. It’s very tiring and you will have to work harder than your peers but you can do it. It’s a beautiful life if you embrace it.

There are a few possibilities.

OCD is one.

Another is auditory hallucinations, which are more common in ND people.

However, it could also be something as simple as DD struggling to recognise and understand her own internal thoughts/internal conversations/internal monologue/self talk. Some children, particularly some ND DC, think of this as hearing voices.

And some autistic children who struggle to express emotions also explain their thoughts/impulsiveness as hearing voices. I presume this could equally apply to ADHD.

My adhd daughter used to say she heard voices when she was that age (before diagnosis) When she first went on meds they stopped but as soon as the meds wore off they flooded in and she ended up in hospital. Her disregulation is mainly at night. Now she's on different meds things are better. I think a lot of ADHD people have a lot of noise in their brains and it's hard to process it all.

My daughter is 7 and has an ASD diagnosis and on the waiting list for ADHD assessment now too. She used to say "my brain told me to do it" when she had done something naughty/silly. I think it was her trying to explain why she had done something impulsive. She seems to understand now that it's her own thoughts.

Thank you, this is exactly what she says, my brain made me do it.

Intrusive thoughts are quiet common with ND. My dc complains that he has a good conscious brain and a bad unconscious brain, and he has bad thoughts popping up in his minds that he doesn't like. It upsets him very much. We are on waiting list for ASD and ADHD assessment and OCD, so I hope there is some medication possible, but it's such a long wait. Either meds for the ADHD to reduce the 'popping up' of unwanted thoughts or possibly SSRIs for OCD. Hopefully something helps. In OCD, the bad thoughts are so strong but the person doesn't want to carry them out, so they adopt a certain ritual or task in order to distract themselves to relieve the internal pressure.