Does my 12 year old girl have psychological issues?

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I'm not really sure where to post this. I could have put it under parenting, but then it is not about an AS child. So I hope someone can give me some advice.

Yesterday I took my 12 year old daughter out for the day as I wanted to spend some time with her as her behaviour lately has become very unusual for her.

At lunch she started discussing this 'friend' of hers that was hearing voices and seeing visions and my daughter wanted to know if that meant she was a schizophrenic. When I questioned her on who the friend was she just said 'a good friend' and would not elaborate further. She was more concerned about what it meant to be having these symptoms. The thing is, I know all her friends, and she has not ever mentioned this nameless good friend to me before.

Now, this situation on it's own probably would not be of concern, but my daughter's behaviour has changed dramatically recently, and it seems more than just normal pre-teen stuff. I won't go into details, but it involves negative and bizarre behaviour to the point that I wonder if she has a split personality disorder that can see her going from her sweet normal self one minute to a screaming out of control demon the next with no accountable reason.
She has also wagged school and stolen money. ( A lot of money that she went and spent with one of her friends on a shopping spree). This was the fortnights grocery money and she seemed to have no concept or care of how bad this was.
It is getting to the point that I am now dreading her coming in the door after school, as more and more often lately she disrupts the whole household and I am finding it very hard to deal with.
At first I thought it is just attention-seeking behaviour. I could think she is on drugs, but I know she is not. Although it sometimes seems she is totally spaced out and not with it at all.
I don't think it can be just put down to hormones either. We are late developers in my family, and she is really only at the very beginning stages of puberty.

I have tried to discuss this with my GP but he seems to find it easy to dismiss.

A little background. I myself have Aspergers Syndrome as does my eldest son. My two middle children are very neuro-typical teenagers and my 12 year old is the youngest. When she was five she suffered a life-threatening illness (encephalitis) that left her with epilepsy which she has now fully recovered from. She is not on any medication. She does not show signs of AS or any autistic disorder. She is socially comfortable and has friends.

I just don't know how to access help for her, and how to find out what is actually going on for her. Does anyone have any ideas what could be going on or how I could find out? We don't have health insurance and I can't afford to take her to a psychiatrist.

Is your daughter going through puberty? I ask because I think I read somewhere that schizophrenia doesn't start till puberty commonly. That does sound suspicious the talk about her "friend". I would call all the child counseling places in your phone book and ask if they know of a free or low cost counselor for a child who is possibily schizo. Our town has such a thing and I think most towns probably do if you search it out.

Stress can cause schizophrenia, so if she has been more stressed than usual, that could also be a reason.

Do you ever talk to her and she appears to ignore you? Some schizophrenics ignore people speaking to them because they do not know if the voice is real or in their head. Having spent some time in the unit, I have had the chance of observing those with schizophrenia. In fact, the staff thought that that was a possibility for me, but ruled it out. I could not tell them that I am autistic, because that would have been used to put me out of the service. I have a website that may be helpful.

http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=By_Illness&Template=/TaggedPage/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=54&ContentID=23036

Oh really, that's interesting, because she is not developed yet, but she has just started puberty I think. It was the reason the GP dismissed her behaviour as 'hormones' but I think it is more than that.

Yes. Also about a month ago she started sleeping in the lounge and when asked why she told me she could hear people talking outside her room. She has been reassured that this is impossible, but every now and then I will find her on the sofa in the lounge.

That's weird, because I heard voices when I was really young. Maybe when I was five...I might have just made up some friends or something

Yes!
In fact it is weird, because she seems spaced out, ignoring me like I am not even there.
I mean I can ignore people easily enough if they are talking to me and I am engrossed in something I am doing.
But she will ignore people even when she is standing there doing nothing.

Thanks for the link

irregardless of whas going on get her to a wholistic md(one with knowlege of developemental issues) that can check for everything, look into things like gluten casein allegery and other food allergies for instance. a wholistic doctor can treat autism and and what is labeled as mental disorders, counselors are a nice addition, but if its going on at twelve noway is it psycholigical.

i dont know if your reliougous or not but what you described can be symptons of demonic oppression.(happened to me)

also have her checked for epilepsy and related disorders.

When I was a kid (preadolescent) I was terrified by perceived sounds, and sometimes I would hear voices too. I was very easily spooked..and had to sleep with the tv on and whatnot.

I suppose it comes down to who this "friend" is. It may really be someone else, perhaps someone she is talking to online.

Or, of course, it could be her. Even then, it could be she learned somewhere about auditory and visual hallucinations and has herself spooked over it; we've all had the experience of "seeing things" and "hearing voices" when we just momentarily misperceived our environment.

Or she could really be developing these symptoms.

I don't know too much about this sort of thing, but if i were in your shoes, i would carefully select a psychiatrist who feels right. perhaps go alone and talk to them, find one who isn't rigid, authoritarian, or anything else that might turn you or your daughter off.

not that i'm big on psychiatrists, not at all. but drawing the truth out from your daughter might best be done by somebody appropriately experienced as well as sensitive.

best to you both.

I hallucinated as a teenager quite a bit, more then I realized until recently.

Be concerned but don't over-worry, its probably not schizophrenia.

She did have epilepsy after the encephalitis when she was five.
But nowadays her EEG is normal and she has had no seizures for the last 3-4 years.

Could the epilepsy be in some way involved with what she is going through now?
When she got home from the hospital when she was five it was a hard time as she would wake just about nightly screaming. She didn't seem to recognise anyone at that time, saying to me "Your not my mother, I want my real mother" and no-one would be able to convince her otherwise or console her until she seemed to come out of the fit or whatever it was.

yes epilepsy often causes bipolar and psychotic symtoms.

and dont listen to those nami people. they are bunch of lying s.o.bs.

Schizophrenia can start earlier than puberty; my little brother, who had childhood-onset, developed it when he was eight. On the other hand, things like stealing etc., mood swings, are not indicative of schizophrenia. I would maybe look into some bipolar research? It can have psychotic features like hearing voices.