"Seeing things that aren't there?"

Post Reply New Topic

My son is 8 years old, has an unofficial diagnosis of Aspergers from his aunt (expert with the Autism Spectrum) special education teacher, specializes with Austic children, heads the Special Education Department for her school district. He certainly shows multiple signs of Aspergers.

I'm wondering if anyone else has had a child who frequently "see's things that aren't there"? He complains of what he see's, he describes them in detail, he's scared of these things (he does have several phobias, we are currently working on with social stories.) He knows these things aren't really there, but continues to see them, and to be afraid. He actually asked if he could take to a doctor about this. He's 8 years old, and he does not know about the probability of Aspergers.

So any information, advice, etc. is welcomed.


Thank you.

Someone with aspergers or autism may be hypersensitive to certain things. My son can spot things easily which are there but are hard for others to notice. I'm not sure what "seeing things that aren't there" might entail. Taken literally, it does not sound like a symptom of aspergers or autism, but perhaps a psychosis. This is important, so if you are living in ND, it would be worth a trip to a specialist in a "big city". 80 degrees today in LA, and there are leading specialists at UCLA. Good luck.

welcome to WP, ndakotaqueen.

many children have imaginary friends and fantastic imaginations. they are also much better than adults at expressing and projecting their fears outside of themselves in an imaginative way - whilst we as adults tend to project onto more "logical" and tangible people or objects, kids are more content (if that's the right word) with a generic "bogeyman", or a fantastic invention of their own.

i'm not suggesting that your son is definitely not showing signs of psychosis, by the way, as that would be simplistic and unhelpful. if he's asked to speak to a doctor about it, that seems to me to be the best thing to do.

i hope that's helpful. good luck, and let us know how you get on.

Vivi
(as Mod)

Hello, this is my first time on here, and I was reading your situation! First let me tell you a little bit about myself, I come from a family that we can trace Asperger's back to my Grandmother. My father had it, I have two brothers that have it, my son has it, and I have a cousin and a few other family members that have it. So, I sometimes feel like more of an expert than the experts, yet there is so much to it that I still have not seen! But as far as seeing things and/or hearing things that are not there, that is very much normal in my family! I am trying to teach my son to know the difference and to see it as his imagination coming to life.. like a day dream. My brother does not know the difference between what is real and what isn't. He hears and sees things, but we did not know about Asperger's until about 5 years ago when my Aunt had stumbled upon it. I don't know what advise to give you, but if you have the Asperger's diagnosis, talking to your doctor may not be a bad idea. I do not medicate my son for anything, and will not allow the doctors to do so, I feel it is best for him to learn to cope with it, since from what I have seen it will be with him his whole life. That is something that you must decide for your family. But just know, that he is not alone out there.

when my son was little, he complained of being afraid of things coming to get him. alternately, he would complain that strangers were in the basement, aliens were coming to get him, monsters were under the bed....................he was never allowed to watch anything scary on tv, and was always well-monitored. we just chalked all this up to him being sensitive and having a good imagination ( even though he was VERY convinced that the mosters, aliens and strangers were real threats)
to this day ( he's 13 now), he insists that he really saw the monsters, aliens and strangers. he does not have any of these delusions now.

For any child, the world is a huge and amazing/scary place. For a child with Asperger's who might have sensitivities (sensory or otherwise) , even more so. When I was a young child, I used to have recurring dreams in which I was in the presence of huge,nameless,faceless entities. I would be filled with an overwhelming sense of 'bigness', of tower expansiveness. I think this was in some way an apparition of the way I was growing up. I was a very smart child, and from a very early age I used to think and ask questions about the world. I think the dreams were in some way a manifestation of my having assimilated so much at such an early age.

I never experience this while awake, but I was always quite occupied as a child. If this hadn't been the case, I can imagine I might have ocassionally 'tranced out' and gone into a similar sort of state.


Maybe your son is in a similar situation. You mentioned that he has some phobias. Perhaps what he is seeing are his fears being personified in his mind. Not neccessarily literally, either, (eg he is scared of spiders and thus sees spiders) but maybe indirectly. When I used to have my dreams they were never literally connected to anything in my life, but in hindsight were nonetheless connected to how I was feeling at the time. In what situations does he see these things? Just out of the blue, maybe when he is at school or with you, or when he is by himself? What sorts of things does he see, if you dont mind me asking.

Additional Information on "Seeing things that aren't there"


To clarify a bit on what my son is seeing:


Example:

The other night he saw the back of his brother's head floating in the tv and then in the closet

He says he's seen a "little man" sitting on the light in his bedroom

He says he's heard "two things" up in the corner talking to each other

He says he's seen part of the wall next to his bed "wiggle" "wave"

He frequently thinks he's heard either myself or his father calling him (we were not)

He says he's heard someone screaming "like they're being stabbed"

He says he's heard his name being called, but not sure from where or by who


A lot of the times he will seem scared but not want to talk about what he saw, so I do not have the details.

These things happen when he is awake. Though he does have chronic nightmares, but refuses to discuss most of the details most of time.

His phobias include, any monster orientated things, the dark, the toilet flushing, any loud noises (even if they do not appear to be loud to others) any unexpected noises.


In addition to these things he also exhibits 98% of the signs of Aspergers.

He is also a very clingy child with me, wants to hold my hand in the mall, wants to sit on my lap at school sporting events, wants to snuggle with me almost all the time. Though he does not exhibit this behavior with anyone else. Though he will also snuggle with his dad.

I'm trying to determine if this seeing and hearing of things, may be related to his phobias, sensory issues, (could he be hearing the neighbors (their house is just beyond his bedroom window in the corner where he hears the voices). He does tend to pick up on sounds such as a clock ticking and it seems loud to him.

I think its quite likely.

When I was a kid I drew security from three things; reading books and comic books, playing video games, and doing well at school. These things made the world seems safe and secure to me. Reading because of the feeling of familiarity and comfort (I would read the same books over and over), video games because of the feeling of exploring and adventuring, and school because it was what I was good at and it made me feel good about myself to excel. Is there anything you can do for your son to make the world seem less scary to him?

Wow!! !! Does that sound like my son. Reading, video games, and excelling in school.

We just had parent teacher conferences tonight, and he is well beyond in Reading, they had a test of how many words per minute, and he as his teacher put it, "I've never seen anything like it." He read 180 wpm, as opposed to late second grade average of . Mind you he's in the beginning of second grade. He is fixated on his video games. He has read an entire series of chapter books in his classroom. His teacher asked about other subjects of interest (besides video games) so that she can purchase chapter books that will hold his interest for the classroom. She is concerned that he may become bored due to not feeling challenged, and is watching this. She has no idea about the suspected AS. We have requested an OT evaluation for his handwriting, without going into the AS aspect. I fear that the teachers/school will not expect enough of him if they see him as "special needs". I spoke with the Title I teacher tonight regarding my daughter, she told me she hadn't heard of Autism until two years ago (we were discussing my sister's expertise on the subject). This worries me, as there seems to be a general lack of experience in such issues at this school. So we keep trudging along, doing what we can, such as the OT evaluation. My sister is currently writing "social stories" to help with his phobias. I keep reassuring him, it's okay, and work with each incident. But he asked me again this evening about going to the doctor to find out why he's seeing and hearing things that scare him. So I'm trying to figure out the best course of action. I don't want to take him to an inexperienced doctor, (which are in abundance here) and have difficulties with it. I'm afraid of one jumping to the wrong conclusions, or jumping to medications, that may not be needed. It seems that happens all to frequently in our neck of the woods.

Thanks for the encouraging words. It's hard for me to think of anything being "wrong" with him, he's such a wonderful sweet loving kid.

my son "sees" things that aren't there all the time some may be hypersensitivity some may be imaginary some may be supernatural for all i know lol but... he also does "out of body" things such as saying his evil brain had taken over his body ... his teacher was concerned that he was schizophrenic but once the psychologist assured her that for some asperger children this is simply a way of calming themselves down when overstimulated we had less problems from her in that area... at least for the moment lol

What does his doctor say? There ar eother diagnosises out there that can mimic Aspergers yet not be. visual hallucinations and autitory hallucinations should be looked into.

I also was reading novels by Year Two. Roald Dahl I think were the first proper books I read. I can also remember having a fast reading speed. I had a certain way of skimming over chunks of text without having to go through each word one by one.

Thats a good attitude, on the part of his teacher. Kids who are naturally gifted need to be stimulated and encouraged to extend themselves, not just given praise and rewards.

whoops, forgot to log in. That was me.

I don't know if this will help, but is your son on any medications? My son is on a couple different medications that seem to be helping him right now, but there were some medications in the past that caused him some major problems. One was Riddlin and the other was Stratera because for a long time before he was dx with Aspergers, they thought he had ADHD, a common mistake from what I have heard.

Both of these medications caused my son to have extremely serious halucinations. He was seeing anything from bugs and worms floating in the air, to big spiders in his bed, to a bird flying around in his room, to monsters chasing him. (I found him up in the middle of the night one night running in circles, and crying because there was a "monster" chasing him.) He saw and heard many things and he was terrified. He wasn't sleeping and he was a nervous wreck. I took him off those medications as soon as possible. One psychiatrist told us it was because the drug was somehow "triggering" the part in his brain that when out of balance can make someone psychotic. She said that most of us are able to keep the balance in that part of our brain, or keep it "sleeping". For some reason, these drugs were "waking up" that part of my son's brain. He's been fine since then and has not been halucinating but he does still occasionally have a phobia of bugs and spiders. It comes and goes. I feel horrible about putting him through all of that, but all I can say is that I didn't know. I thought I was helping him and he was too little to really tell me what was going on inside his head.

Anyway, I would suggest you take him to a Doctor or psychiatrist as soon as possible, because even though these things your son is seeing are not real, they are very real to him and he could be traumatized by it.

Could he have a VERY active imagination. I am not asperger or anything, but I have a huge imagination. To this day I remember actuallly hearing footsteps outside my bedroom when I was little. Or I would be home by myself and I would also hear my parents calling my name. They were not hullucinations or anything, just imagination. In fact my husband hates it when I read because I get devoured by my books and don't even try to get through to me. My son who is asperger used to always tell me that there was a lion in his room. During the day this was a nice lion and at night it was very, very mean. He was scared to death of it. He now has a little stuffed puppy dog who really is his best friend. (My son is almost 6 by the way) I mad reference to it as a toy the other day and he started cring. He said that he is real and he talks to him and plays with him and helps him get to sleep. He even named it after himself. I do believe it is a coping mechanism. When the dog came the lion went away and he started sleeping with the light off. This puppy dog often exibits feelings that would seem appropriate for my son to be doing, but instead the dog is. It is a good chance it is just an over active imagination, but I would go the doc to be sure. You always want to be safe just in case. But try not to worry too much.

The images he See's, are they things he See's from TV or books or like?

The brain has many platelets (or brain cells), if some of those cells are weak or damaged Or the information is being misdirected, then the information that is meant to be processed while he sleeps may be being processed at a conscious level instead of when he sleeps like its supposed to,
many processes of the mind can be detected because misdirected information generally does not have all of the olfactory included, the images may not have sound or texture or smell or the like, teach him to look for those things to start learning to tell the difference from illusions and reality, meds help, but they may not always be there for him, teach him to tell the deference and also teach him to pause on things he is not sure about to give them further processing before responding.

can this be fixed? no idea, I am not a doctor, but I do know from experience with illusions of the mind that some things an be recognized and dealt with, or ignored. if he is smart he will learn the difference and then learn to ponder the depths of his own mind like no other simply by learning the process's we take for granted, hehe he may become the best dream reader alive simply by learning about him self and learning how to control it, make the weakness a strength.


Ignore me or forget me if you like, but from my own perspective, I have seen and experienced much,, more then I wish I had at times , some things you can not ignore, the problem is there, learn from it, deal with it, teach him to use it as a strength.

good luck.
hug him for me please.
Illusions can be such a pain.
.