Re: mm/Judy/ hallucinations

[Guest guest]

My daughter would see people and hear voices when she was in the

worst stages of her eating disorder/ptsd. She would, for example,

see someone under a street light who was waiting for her and/or would

follow her (around dusk when she would go for a walk around our

culdesac). She would say it was a black man or black men. No racial

offense intended, but she was, imo, assaulted by 4 large black

orderlies when she was placed on a 72 hold after being transferred to

a psych-facility when she was just 12, for a very minor acting-out

behavior, after many hrs in the emgcy room for her eating disorder

(she had gone on a dangerous fast).

The action of these men holding/carrying her away was precipitated by

her refusal to undress for a weapon or drug search (another sensory

trigger and OCD violation for her) and was extremely frightening,

what with her general sense of confusion in sudden transitions, and

her sensory defensiveness i.e she'd always has a bad reaction, such

as screaming, if being touched or grabbed or jostled, which was an

autistic-like trait the way I saw it. So being physically restrained

or carried off was extremely traumatic for her. So after that (when

she got back home (and we took her out AMA which put us at risk for

CPS contact) she would see black men following her, and see scary

faces in the window (she called them demons) and she would hear

voices telling her to do bad things like to harm me or herself.

I believe the combo of her acute sensory defensiveness, and a

vulnerable/sensitive emotional profile, her OCD and aspie traits,

then the eating disorder/ malnutrition on top of that, then the

assault and locked away (against our consent) from home during a

trauma, put her over the edge.

So any potential for OCD intrusive thoughts or images in her mind

(and she'd had an earlier tendency to see 'faces' in her window but

knew they were not real) that were defined by her as her OCD and she

could leaern to dismiss as OCD (we called it " junk mail " ) turned

into things which seemed external and real to her.

Off the topic, but something I learned about county psych-care for

vulnerable individuals (and actually I consider any children

separated from parents into unknown circumstances to be very

vulnerable-but OCD type kids are even moreso, and should never be

treated with force for sake of the insitution's convenience, or if

resisting rules that violate their OCD- unless a serious danger to

self or others)....is that sensitive vulnerable people are not the

kind you treat with uneccessary force that feels just like an like

assualt to their atypical sensory systems, no matter how " safe " the

staff think their " holds " are.

What this type traumatic stress does is actually cause precisely what

psychiatric care is supposed to treat or alleviate! I wonder how many

vulnerable sensitive individuals end up with PTSD after undergoing

unplanned psych care or holds? Then are let go with a case of PTSD on

top of whatever else was troubling them.

I don't know if my assessment addresses confusion that other

parents may experience, but the point is, I did see a turning point

from OCD type intrusive thoughts/images, to being unable to

distinguish anymore and it becoming becoming psychosis. Maybe there

is a line between OCD, and not fully getting 'reality' that is is

more fine for some people.

My older daughter also had an " imaginary " friend when younger (and

may still have?) that she spoke with, but I never really knew how

real or not she considered it, though was aware her imagination was

probably on the more vivid side.

In my middle dd's case I think with enough time, and maturity/ability

to process it all (the PTSD aspect of it made her unable to process

it for some time b/c was too scary) she no longer has the psychosis,

and can say it was hallucinatory, but I do believe she could be

vulnerable to experiencing it again under severe stress. I think kids

with OCD co-morbid with other disorders could be predisposed this

way, but I cannot be sure.

nancy grace

>

> mm,

> After reading your post, I have some concerns and doubts also.

> My son does the same thing you are describing. He will say he sees

someone standing over there, etc. I will tell him that there isn't

anyone there. He than seems fine. I was told by my son's psychologist

this was considered psychosis. There have been times he

was " hallucinating " all day and could not function, but he also has

times where he goes in and out.This is the big dilemma for me. Does

my son have " bad thought OCD " or is this psychosis from being manic

from the bipolar? The psychologist still cannot say, seeing my son is

only 6.My son's psychiatrist , on the other hand has told me that if

my son realizes these things are not real, than it is OCD, but if he

believes it is, than it is psychosis.

> I am very confused about the difference between the psychosis and

the bad thoughts. Are they the same thing or different. Once again,

my son's two doctors say different things about them, leaving me

extremely confused.

> Hugs

> Judy

>

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