Supporting my son through paranoia

Hi all, I recently posted about my son (12 y/o) who had been hearing voices. He was on Straterra and then the pDoc put him on a low dose of Risperdal to tame the voices. It worked. He went from hearing them 30 times a day to once a day, and the tone seemed to change from hyper critical and negative towards my son (i.e. you don't love your family, kill them) to commentary/concern on things that will happen to other people (your friend's leg will get cut off by that pipe in the creek).

After about 3 weeks on the Risperdone, however, he's started to become very paranoid when it's time for bed. The last five nights he is hearing doors open and shut, doorknobs trying to be turned, and foot steps. These are not real sounds, and he'll hear them even if music is on. Last night was the worst and he's now going into a panic. He's convinced someone is going to break in and kill us, then he wants it to go away and starts to hate on himself because he can't make it stop.

Anyway, I know others have this same paranoia or delusion...not sure what it is. What I don't know is how to support him or why it would get worse after the Risperdone had set in. Any thoughts?

Thanks so much!

I hate to say this but its possible the risperidone needs to go up a little---its possible that all this stuff was there all the time but just not noticeable/interpretable because in comparison to the other its nothing---when I was on risperidone 2mg the last of my hallucinations involved smells---I never noticed while fully psychotic but as I recovered it became really apparent...but thinking back---you know it probably didn't smell like boiled cabbage in the car or cigarette smoke in a non-smoking train...I just didn't notice it before because I wasn't thinking logically---this may just be a case of an increase in insight which is good. But yeah he might need to increase the dose a small bit it sounds like a combination of hallucinations and delusions which is really hard to deal with...

This was my thought too.
He will be woozy tired at first.....this was the problem you encountered but it will take a few days to adjust. usually in a week you should see the effects.
I will say,my daughter was 12 when the sympts she had all her life really took a turn into cronic psychosis. It took quite a long time to figure out what meds will help. Has he ever been hospitalized?

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Yes. He is hitting an age where he is developing insight into what is going on. Risperdol did that for my daughter too. For my daughter, upping the Risperdol only allowed her to cope wih her hallucinations. For her, we had to try a lot before we got to a goodmed for her. Even now, stress is causing psychosis again.

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I appreciate it! Yes, he was supposed to take a half tablet of the Rispedol in the morning, but it made him so drowsy we had been skipping it per the doctors instructions. Now that his body is more used to the medication in general, I'm going to add that half dosage in the morning and see if he can overcome the sleepiness in hopes that it will help with this fear/panic stuff.

punkybrester, interesting that it hit your daughter at 12. My son says he's had this stuff going on for as long as he can remember, but it's just recently that it's intensifying to the point that he told me and needs help with it. I'm soooooo scared as to how much worse it will get. I'm supposed to go on a business trip from Tuesday to Saturday and I just don't think there is anyway I can leave him here. I'm a single mom and he'd stay with my parents, but the voices will be telling him I'll die on the plane, in the car, etc.. and he'll worry all the time. I'm afraid that will trigger more hallucinations, delusions or who knows what else. Ugh!!!! It's a whole new scary world. Does anyone else find that changes in routine or stability trigger them and deepen their symptoms?

OMGosh. There are.a.lot of similarities. Sorry abot the dots in my post. Dumb phone keyboard....
Yes! Any stresors bring on symptoms. Read my old posts. Ot describes a lot of what you are.dealing with. She has been hospitalized 3 times since.turning 12. All good experiances once she got past the first 3.days there.when they change her meds. She will npw tell us when she needs to go. For us, it was the most helpful thing to do. I can only speak from our experience. She has always had symptoms too. From a young age. Puberty seems.to have really kicked into high gear.
She misses a lot of school. What is your sons diagnosis? Or are you still in the early stages without one.

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I will look through your posts. He still doesn't have a diagnosis other than ADHD, which he received years ago. He has not been hospitalized, but last night was the first time I thought that it could happen. With my own bipolar experiences I know that it can get to such a point that your only option is for doctors to watch you in order to figure it all out and for you to be able to stabilize. I hope it doesn't happen.

Even before the hallucinations and delusions had started I have been considering pulling him out of school. I put him in private because public couldn't handle him and our life was a nightmare. Private is better, but so expensive and he's still considered op-positional and has a reputation. A couple of months ago, in a concerned fashion, the director asked me if we own guns!! Anyway, thinking of homeschooling or unschooling to try and build the most positive environment possible. I'm just desperate to do whatever I can now to minimize any future/futher symptoms. I know maybe I can't control it, but damn it I want too!!!!

My Bean was Dx ADHD for years. They tried many different meds and they worked only occasionlly. I kept telling them something else is going on and hey would not listen!
Finally, so many hallucinations were going on that we bought her to the ER. They dmitted her right away and drove her to a very good psychiatric hospital by ambulance. The next day, a pdoc called to tell me I had a very sick child and how has she not been hospitlized before this?!?!
Huh. We just lived with it for so long that we didnt know any better. SHE lived with it for so long that she didnt know that others didnt see and hear what she does. She stayed 6 weeks that first time.
My daughter (Bean) paternal grandfather was Dx paranoid SZ. After she was born her aunt and uncle were also diagnosed.

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Oh wow - I have not heard a story like that. Mine has always had problems and we've always called it ADHD, but his stuff has always been more pervasive/emotional/aggressive than other kids we've known with ADHD.

Thanks for sharing. Last night when I started thinking maybe I needed help with him, I honestly didn't know where we'd go and today started looking into what mental health facilities would take him - the pickings are slim. I did not realize you could go to the regular ER as a stop gap if there is an emergency. Thanks!

Just make sure the hospital you take him to has a pdoc in the ER. We had to travel far to find a hospital that does. They were very kind and made sure we got her into a 'good' psyche hospital. You may be stuck there for hours though waiting for a bed.

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Pickings are slim here too. Just do your homework and have a plan. Now that she has been a few times, we just call the psyche hosp and they admit from there.
ALSO...In order to admit, he has to be a danger to himself or others. That is the rule. We try to admit her before she is full blown psychotic. If we know she is ready or asks to go, we wait until she makes a comment about hurting herself or others and then we can get the ball rolling. Or just simply ask her and she will say she is. Hope this helps.
I dont advocate hospitalization but at this age we need to get control of the symptoms NOW. Get them functioning and relief as soon as possible.

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PLEASE keep us posted...

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P&G my son's pdoc says it's part of anxiety but he has the same issue. We have a "where every he falls out he falls out." Usually it's while we are watching a movie in the living room. He's 11 but he has moved back into. Our room because he's behind 3 locks with both his parents and his dog to protect him. Have you asked him what would help him. My sister has a similar issue each of her windows and doors have alarms and extra locks on her doors. I also have the same issue, for me I rely on my dog to alert me to when there is more of a concern then what I see or hear. She has better hearing and night vision then me.

Hi Miguel's Mom - thanks for sharing. I think it is anxiety. So after day 5 we decided to go spend the night at my parents' house to see if he would feel better. He did. He didn't get scared at all!! So, last night we slept at home and it started up when it was close to bedtime. You can hear much more of what's going on in the neighborhood at our house so I listened for noises with him and explained every noise i heard...that's the neighbor's car door closing, someone is rolling out their garbage can, there's the icemaker, etc.... He said this helped him. He slept in my room on the floor again, read a book while listening to a podcast of the Rosary (i was raised Catholic and find it calming) and fell asleep without waking up all night. Thank goodness!

So, I think we made some progress....I hope. I'm still going to cancel my business trip because I just can't handle the anxiety that we'll both feel if I go.

Thanks again all and many hugs!!!

Oops. Didnt mean to stick the above quote in this...

That is some great progress!
Im still concerned a bit. He is 12.
Not 6 or 8. This is unusual behavior for a child thos age. Could it be any medication causing this paranoia?
Could anxiety really cause this type of reaction in a 12 year old?
This is an honest question. I am curious.

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I think anxiety is part of it, a trigger or something, but i'm still concerned too. Actually, I'm still over here freaking out constantly trying to decide what the right thing to do is....but I'm glad we had a good night last night.

I have a 7 year old and she wouldn't do this. In fact, his talk about someone coming to kill us scares her, but she handles it quite well. So no, definitely not normal at 12 and definitely not normal for him, either.

pink&grey,,,

i had this fear mainly after the age of 10 up into middle school. i felt like my family was going to be murdered. this happened after my dad died. i would stay up at night obsessing about each sound and eventually go to my moms room and beg her to let me sleep with her. the fear i felt was panic and utter terror. iw as convinced that we were going to die. it helped to sleep with my mom and eventually i grew out of it. i slept with my mom up til middle school. im glad you sat with ur son and told him every sound. that sounds like it would have been really helpful. i wasnt close with my mom so i didnt really tell her why i felt that way. im glad youre open to helping your son feel safer

i feel for you guys. my problems started at 12. i thought my parents were spies and i thought when they were going to work they were actually going to a building to spy on me. i thought i was actually going to be murdered too.

How soon until he sees his pdoc again?
Sheesh....he shouldnt be suffering lile this.
You shouldnt be either mama.....

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He doesn't see pDoc again for 2 months. I took him to my pDoc and he's not a child specialist. I think he's giving it time to see what happens - both because he's unsure and that's just how he rolls. He's very different from any other pDoc I've ever seen, but in a good way. However, I'm going to research the child pDocs that my insurance covers and start considering a move.

My son did finally say he would like to talk to a counselor... so we are going to do that. He's been many times before, but it's always because i made him and he never opened up. Maybe now he will.

Thanks for the input newtus and junkDNA. We are pretty close, but my gut tells me there's more he has not yet told me. According to him he's been hiding the voices for years and he's always afraid to talk about it because he thinks he's going to get "locked up". I'm trying to be patient and earn his confidence so he'll be as open as he can.

Yea. Sometimes when Bean is having a hard time she will not say anything because she doesnt want more meds. Not often though. I understand. I wouldnt want more either.

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