My son is seeing things! Please HELP!

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I have a 2 year old son with PDD-NOS, a “mild” form of autism. About a month or two ago he started to become afraid of his room, specifically the area behind the door, just our room in general. It’s basically the whole upstairs that he can’t be around We didn’t think anything of it. A few days ago it started happening again and it has been going on for a few days now. He is extremely terrified, he will look at the corner of the room like he sees something there. He will take my hand and make me cover his eyes, if I try to take my arm away he freaks out. Something is in that room with him. He breaks out in a cold sweat and starts to shake, he then will cover his eyes. He points to the corner and starts talking to me, like he is trying to tell me something about the room. He sleeps with blankets over his head, soon as we put him in his crib he grabs his blankets and puts them over his head. It’s very troubling because he can’t express himself to us, he can’t tell me what is wrong. All I know is that he won’t get off our bed, he is afraid of the upstairs now. When where downstairs he will walk past the steps and look up the steps from the corner of his eye, again like he sees something. We don’t know what to do, we are very upset about. something worse if we don’t have too. I would greatly appreciate your help in this matter, it’s very urgent. If you can’t help us, could you please point me in the right direction to someone who can? I can’t see my son like this anymore. I did contact to his case workers, the people who help with his autism and they have never heard of a child scared of something that is not there, point to something and being this frightened.


Does anyone ever hear anything like this, this is getting extremely scary of everyone here. Tonight he was taking his bath, which he usually loves, he always has a blast. Out of nowhere he started getting scared and looking up at the corner of the bathroom. He started crying and wanted to get out of the bath tub. We decided to move his crib into a smaller room away from his room, we had grandma stay with him tonight. He was fine at first then out of no where he took my mothers arm and put it over his face to cover his eyes. He then got under the blankets. About 5 minutes later he started to wimper and cry a little bit. So now it seems to be any room upstairs, not just his room anymore. I can't explain whats going on, his autism therapist don't seem to understand whats going on.

I don't know what to mention what I believe it is.... Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Brett

I think that's a smart move. Even though you don't understand what's going on, you tried something and made a medium step. Okay, so it didn't work. But maybe another medium step in another direction might.

I know in one book this autistic boy was afraid of dogs, which is not entirely an irrational fear.

I used to see things when I was a kid. I used to make a tent out of my pillows and blankets so I could be completely covered. It went well into my teenage years. Less often as I got older and then disappeared completely in adulthood. My doctor has told me more then once, that extreme anxiety or stress can actually cause hallucinations.

I know you said he is only two. But when I was around 4, i was so anxious that the hair literally fell out of my head causing bald spots. (then my dad would have to rub this sticky nasty stuff into my scalp to try to get my hair to grow back). My doctor at the time told my parents 'I don't know what a 4 year old has to be so anxious about but he has a severe anxiety disorder.' I can't answer the question why i was so extremely anxious at that age? But fact was I had a severe anxiety disorder at a very young age and it caused me hallucinations.

Consider extreme anxiety.
Results may vary, please consult your Doctor.

Some thoughts:

Having such a severe fear of something can make you see it anywhere. With me it's spiders especially after an encounter with one. Fear for me becomes a very visual memory. One time my food had maggots in it and later I just kept checking every bowl.

Temporal lobe epilepsy: causes visual and auditory hallucinations and unusual behaviour. It's not often accompanied by the common physical seizure symptoms. I have this too.

Autistic people have very visual minds (some of us do) and when fear integrates with that we can see a whole lot of scary stuff. My sci-fi watching (even if at the time it doesn't scare me) makes my fear manifest as aliens,creatures, ghouls, etc.

Then there is schizophrenia but I've never heard of it in a two year old.

There's something called the emotional freedom technique which helped with my fear of spiders, which I may have to do again. I think the site is emofree.com

I sleep with the covers over my head too while thinking 'it's just epilepsy, it's not really there.'

Strange fears are fairly common for small children. Many children are irrationally afraid of the dark, or what's in the closet. Sounds like your son has taken it further. My daughter sees ghosts so she says. Some she likes and some she doesn't. She was a bit older than your son. I don't know what his level of understanding is, but saying a prayer worked for Kaylee. She asked that they stay out of her room. Monster spray works for many kids. Monster spray is lavender essential oil in some water, put in spray bottle. I know the feeling of being scared out of your wits that your kid is hallucinating. Everybody had good ideas if it's extreme.

Monster spray!! ! I'm so stealing that and trying it with my son.

Either a psychiatrist, or a regular doctor with some horse sense like a family practitioner or pediatrician. I myself have had bad experiences with 'mental health professionals' (cough, cough), and I really think only about 30% of them are helpful. Some are in the sloppy middle and are distracting but not directly harmful. And then some are harmful.

I think there's a lot to be said for the regular doctor with some horse sense who's willing to try some things without being married to his or her advice.

If you remember anything from thread,remember this ^^^.

The internet is the worst place to go for medical advice.

We moved him into a different room tonight, smaller room. My mother is staying with him tonight. He was doing fine when he first go in there, he was watching TV with grandma, he just got out of his bath tonight. He had a terrifying experience in the bath tonight, which has never happened, so I'm guessing it's getting worse. Anyways, he was in the little room with my mother, we moved his bed into there. He was doing fine then all of a sudden it happened again he started looking over to where the crib was like he saw something, he got frighten and started crying. I really don't understand what is going on but I'm getting angry because I cant help him! My son has been through enough already and hes only 2, I just want him to live a normal life or at least have the chance too.

I really think I'm starting to lose my mind. My girlfriend and I watch a lot of TV, like Ghost Hunters, etc. as my girlfriend was always into it due to a past experience she had when she was younger, she doesn't like to talk about it. I feel like I'm crazy for saying this but I actually contacted a local paranormal group for help. There called the (Pittsburgh Paranormal Society). I'm not allowed to post the link here but If you Google it, it'll come right up. I am also going to call Children's Hospital today, that's that place that diagnosed him with PDD-NOS, where he had he meeting or whatever you want to call it. Anyways, none of his autism workers can explain to us what is going on, his TSS/case workers or whatever the abbreviation is? All they tell me is to make him fill comfortable, take some of his favorite toys up there so he fells better, pretty much things I already knew. My son is severely upset and it almost makes it worse when I try to say "It's OK buddy, no one is here" or "Your fine, daddy is here". When he sees these "things" nothing can help him except me holding him and covering his eyes, he will not let go of me.

I talked to the owner of PPS today, there coming out on Thursday I believe to try and help us, do some EVP's and maybe bless the house, see if they can get us some answers. I don't believe in this type of stuff and in my heart I don't think its paranormal. But the look on my sons face tonight scared me to DEATH! I video taped him for like 20 seconds because I wanted to show people what his emotions where about this. His face is was in utter horror, I can't even watch the video anymore it breaks my heart. It's especially hard because he can't tell me what he wants or what is bothering him. I mean he can say certain stuff but his vocabulary is not extensive I would say.

I did have my son sitting on a chair in our living room, he kept looking up the stairs out of the corner of his eye, again like something was looking back at him or something was up there. My girlfriend asked him "Tell mommy what you see up there" and "Can you tell me who is up there". It sounded like his reply was "Ghost". It wasn't clear but it really sounded like that. I know he could of got it from TV or what not but that is the first time I've heard him use that word or even get remotely close to saying it. Some I'm sitting here trying to put all these pieces together. Like he was never afraid to take a bath, it was his favorite thing to do, loved the water. All of a sudden tonight he saw something again and had to be taken out immediately. He is walking by the steps, from crossing from the dining room to the living room and he well hurry up and glance upstairs. It's hard to explain but as a father I know something is very wrong. I might not be able to describe that good, but were all upset and scared too. The owner of PPS will be coming out Thursday at 8PM like I said, he will be bring 3 people with him to assist him. He was telling me on the phone that children are very in-tuned with the paranormal and even more so for kids with autism whether it's mild or not. I don't know much about this, that's why I'm here. Also, it's kind of hard to tell others, especially doctors, that you think your son is seeing ghosts or unseen objects. Were at standstill with where we go from this? I can't keep switching him from room to room, praying to go that he wakes up one day not scared anymore or this "ghost" goes away. I forbid my son from being scared to sleep in his own room or feel uncomfortable being in his own house. Because he gets therapy here at the house 30 hours a week for his autism. I need him to feel safe here to he can get the help he needs.

I would really appreciate your help and comments, I'm open to any suggestions not matter how crazy it sounds. Please tell me any personal experience you have had or have heard from others.

Thank you so much guys!

Sincerely,
Brett

I do believe in the paranormal. Children seeing things that adults don't see doesn't always mean they are hallucinating.

Exactly, people are very quick to just through all this terminology out there where in fact there might actually be something he is really seeing. I hope this paranormal can help and not make it worse for us by "opening" something up. I've never even thought I would go through this type of stuff and it's still mind blowing that I'm actually have a "ghost hunters" coming to my house on Thursday. I really don't like the idea but with how scared my son is what else can I do. I can make phone calls to I'm blue in the face but that wont help my child now. Hopefully Children's Hospital can point us in the right directions with a psychiatrist that has dealt with these types or issues in kids.

About that "Monster Spray", I wonder if it's a bad idea to fuel his ideas about this negative stuff? Some people are telling me to steer clear of anything about it. And then some are telling me to talk to him about it and turn this bad thing in to a positive somehow, but I have no clue on how to do that. He is too young to grasp what is going on and this is the problem, I just cant sit down with and explain to him what is going on, he'd have no clue what I''m talking about?

My problem with the belief of ghosts is that the brain dies so how do you explain them walking around? Sorry, but I need scientific evidence.

Geomagnetic storms have been known to reverberate Earth's magnetic field and this can affect humans by giving them behavioural issues, fatigue, hyperactivity and hallucinations. In fact, it could explain UFO encounters. I've actually had one of my own during a complex partial seizure.

My opinion is: the TV show has given him paranoid fears. If I watched that stuff I'd probably start seeing things. I'm just a visual persona nd it's bad enough I see mythological creatures and aliens everywhere. Oh and dinosaurs. I'm being serious too.

But think what you want. The best thing is to understand what's happening to your son and helping him recover from it.

Ok well either your house is haunted...I can't say for sure if that's possible or not, I mean thats kind of one of those things some people think is a real possibility and some people think is BS.

But other than that it sounds pretty normal for a 2 year old to get afraid of stuff like that........I mean I remember when I was really young I sometimes saw weird things at night and sometimes me and my sister would even use our imaginative abilities to our advantage and pretend to watch movies on the ceiling and other ridiculously impossible things. But we did have a few weird fears, and some of them we created our self. So to me this does not sound like anything to get to disturbed about, but if it continues too long and really is effecting your lives then it might be something to look into further.......but little kids do have a lot of imagination and can get a little carried away with that so that could be one explination.

I recommend it....I think it was my dad one time who did that when I was a kid and it certainly did help. Its kind of like a placeabo effect.

Other than the part about him seeming to be looking in particular places, or out of the corner of his eye, what he's doing sound EXACTLY like what one of my sons did at around the same age.

He would just appear in the hallway, after he'd already been asleep for a while, wandering around, sobbing, but not crying. If we tried to speak to him at all, he would scream "NO! STOP TALKING!" He'd wander downstairs (he was NOT sleep walking, he was wide awake, he even remembers to this day some of those nights, and can even explain what he was thinking now, and he's thirteen now!), into the kitchen, then just stand there, crying. If I turned on a light that was off, he would scream. If I shut a light off that was on, he would scream. If I closed or opened a door, he would scream. If I approached him, or backed away from him, he would scream. I almost had an ambulance come for him one night it was so bad, because I didn't think he would keep his car seat straps on (he used to squirm out of them all the time), but I did manage to get him to the hospital. He was almost calmed down by the time I got him there, but still gasping enough the doctors could see it. It was damned freaky. It started suddenly, lasted for several months, off and on, then just as suddenly, he never did it again.

We were told "night terrors," but we looked them up, and that is NOT what they were. He was wide awake every time he did it. We know because he remembers all those times even now. He just could not speak when it happened, even though he had been speaking for many months. Just not when that happened.

I can't tell you what's going on with your son, but I can tell you I KNOW what you are going through. It's damned scary, you don't know what it is or what to do, and even the doctors are probably no help at all.

All I can say is, he'll probably grow out of it. It isn't likely that stuff like that continues indefinitely. As for the paranormal comments, I don't have anything to offer in that department other than to say that most of the time, it's just inexplicable stuff. All three of my sons are mildly Autistic. Asperger's, PDD-NOS, and HFA. We've experienced all kinds of weird stuff, lost a LOT of sleep, and still do some nights (they're all teenagers now), and so far every weird experience passed, to be replaced by new, sometimes even more perplexing mysteries.

I wish I had something better to tell you, but sometimes we just want to "cure" the problem, when there is no cure but the passing of time. If you've had him checked out medically, and they've found nothing, give it time. This may happen for longer than you think you can stand, but you can. Trust me, you can. We did it with three of them, and we were not at that time, the most stable people. Come to think of it, I don't know that we're all that stable today either.

If it gets bad enough on any given night, take him up to the ER. I bet he does what mine did, and calms down on the way. You may need to take him for rides to get him to sleep. We had to do that for many months with all three boys. That was a trip too, because riding put two of them out, but the youngest loved it so much, he would never go to sleep until we got home. Even in the pitch black!

Autism, even mild Autism, at that age can be HELL. But please give him time. Let him just be who he is, and do your best not to freak out yourself, because that will only feed his freaking. By the way, we also allowed our kids to fall asleep with us. We did that a lot. We got a lot of flack for that from some people, but we were the ones who needed sleep and couldn't get any. I am in NO way ashamed of what we did. You shouldn't be either.

Do WHATEVER you have to do to get your own sleep, and keep your sanity. And NEVER be ashamed of what it takes. Don't listen to ANYBODY that doesn't have Autistic kids themselves. They do NOT have a clue.

I hope there is at least one sliver of hope somewhere in this. I really feel for you, because we have been there. It is scary, but it WILL pass. Just keep your head about you.