Anyone's child having delusions?

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Hi there,

New to the forum. I have a 9 year old, high functioning boy who is autistic. Lately (and a varied few times in the past), he tells me he sees things - mostly animals (which he's obsessed with). Now he's telling me that his "visions" are telling the future.

So, basically, he says that he saw a wolf, a snake, and a bird of prey attack him. Then he said that a few weeks later he saw a half of a wolf looking up at him in the night under the streetlight (he woke up in the middle of the night, but I don't remember him telling us about it). Then another time later he was playing baseball in the back yard and heard the call of the bird of prey and then it swooped down over his head and went away. Then after that he was told about the serpent at church (you know, the devil) and he said that's when it all came together that he had these visions and then they all came back. So now he reasons he can see the future (he's not really sold on the idea... he's just thinking about it and trying to figure it all out).

He has other "visions" about half cockroaches and half humans and battles of some kind. I asked him if these were in his dreams or if he's awake and he's very clear that he's not sleeping when he sees this in his mind. He does say his eyes are open when he sees them, which is the part that obviously concerns me.

So, I'm not sure if this is an Autistic thing or what?
Any and all thoughts are welcome. Thank you so much in advance!

Dawna

That doesnt sound autistic to me, actually, i think is schizophrenia, the main traits of schizophrenia are (visual,auditory) alucinations, and delusions, you should be careful, and take him to a psych, maybe he could be misdiagnosed.

I'd be wanting to investigate further with a professional too. It could be he thinks he is seeing them, like his imagination is so vivid. Or maybe he thinks it makes a great story and he's not actually seeing anything. Or maybe he is actually seeing them. Or something else. Not sure how you could find out without taking him to a professional though. As far as I know, it's not an ASD thing to have halucinations/ delusions, I also have only heard of it with schizophrenia.
Good luck getting to the bottom of it.

Although an alternative explanation may be that he's having difficulty communicating what is actually going on - is it possible he is imagining these things and trying to describe them to you? Kids sometimes struggle with the line between fantasy and reality - AS kids are no different (I, myself, had a vivid fantasy life with whole worlds that seemed very real to me - but on some level, I realized that this "reality" was just wishful thinking.)

Ask him why YOU can't see the wolf or the other things. Ask him if anybody else can see them. Ask if they are really there or if he is playing pretend and making a "movie" in his mind, or if they are a memory of something he saw somewhere (the internet can be a scary place.)

My own son sometimes struggles with not being able to "un-see" things that disturbed him: he gets images in his head that are very distressing, sometimes triggered by real life events, sometimes imaginary. The difference between this and "normal" obtrusive thoughts are that he can't seem to make the thoughts go away.

It can't hurt to get a professional opinion if it concerns you, or if your child is distressed - but pediatric schizophrenia is extremely rare.

Maybe he just has a good imagination. Children think and believe and say all kinds of bizarro things.

Just so you don't feel alone . . . I have wondered about this too. My son is almost 6. Has off/on heard things and seen things--what I would think are either hallucinations or a very vivid imagination. He gets frightened easily and can't shake images. He also can be in his own little world and so I think everything around him--including his imagination--echoes what he is obsessed with. (Example: he swears he saw a white ninja fly across the sky. He tells me it was absolutely true and he called it a miracle.)

One thing to remember too is that ASD is neurological. And our senses are linked to our brain so closely. My son was evaluated for seizures but the findings were inconclusive, though it did show some 'abnormal' activity. I sometimes wonder if the hearing things and seeing things is actually linked to some kind of mini brain seizure that they have been unable to detect. Quite possible. And perhaps a better explanation in one so young.
I was wondering just today about whether or not to take my son back to the neurologist, since it seems to have increased lately.
Blessings

I don't know if this helps you at all, but I have Aspergers and when I was a child I had experienced a few legitimate hallucinations. They were not in my imagination and I was perfectly capable of telling the difference between a "vision" and something in my imagination. They looked so real to me that I felt like I could have reached out and touched them. It only happened a handful of times, and I've never had any delusions accompanying them. I did mention it to the intake therapist when I went to get my AS diagnosis (as an adult), and she said that it wasn't enough to cause her to be concerned about the possibility of anything psychotic going on.

One thing I should have thought of before - is your child on any medications? If so, check with your doctor to see if hallucinations are a side effect. There are a lot of medications, especially those they give children with neurological differences, that have very serious side effects and hallucinations are one of them (for instance, it's a known side effect of Adderall, Strattera, Concerta, or Ritalin.

Not sure how medically accurate this article is, but it may give you a starting place to research: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-ca ... ildren.htm

Is your child frightened or disturbed by this? My daughter 'sees things'. However, it is her imagination and her very strong visual thinking coming together. She projects images from her mind into the real world. When she first told me this, I was worried and thinking along the lines of schizophrenia. But, she really knows that these images are conjured by herself and she can take them away just as easily. She never conjures up anything she is scared of. One of them is Slimer from Ghostbusters, which might sound like she is having scary hallucinations, but she's not scared of Slimer and thinks he's cute. If your son is getting confused by what is real and what is from his mind, then you probably need to ask for some advice from a professional. However, if this is intermittent, it could be caused by fever, even low grade, which you're not aware of.

As others have stated this might be his imagination + sometimes my daughter will get images "stuck" in her mind. This is OCD in nature (although my daughter doesn't have a dx of OCD she has many OCD tendencies). Perhaps he is getting images "stuck" as well? For my daughter this is very stressful because sometimes the images can be disturbing.