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okay, I'm a little embarassed to ask this, but the post about hearing voices got my thinking/worrying. My 15 year old foster son does something that I find really odd. Odd enough that I had to eavesdrop a couple of times to confirm what I was hearing! When he thinks he can't be overheard, and especially if it is when he is somewhat upset, he talks to himself. Okay, I talk to myself too - but not the way he does! It honestly sounds like he is having one side of a dialogue. His voice is in a very normal, conversational tone, and sounds like he's responding to someone else. Just the other day he was a bit shocked to find out how much he weighs (he is going to be a very tall boy) and had been talking about it all day. Sure enough, in his room later, I could hear him saying. "Yeah, but I'm nearly 210 pounds." small example, but do you see what I mean? A couple of times, I've heard him review BOTH sides of a conversation, but adding stuff on BOTH sides that wasn't there the first time. Example: We'd had a discussion that went like this My husband "You aren't going anywere until your room is clean. You've had all week to clean it, and if you want to go out you need to finish it first."
him "Geez you guys are always making such a big deal out of nothing! Fine, I'll clean my stupid room". So he storms downstairs, shuts his door and cranks his music, but while he's cleaning I hear:
"You aren't going anywere until your room is clean! You're nothing but a stupid little f-up and you can't do anything you're asked. You've had all week to clean it, so you better f-ing do it before I throw all your junk out in the street."...."You f-ing bastard! I don't have to do one f-ing thing you tell me to! You aren't my dad - you aren't my parents - and if you make me clean my room I'm going to break everything in there and wreck the walls." uhhh...okay. Not quite the conversation *I* heard, and I was a little worried about what he was doing in there. He comes out half an hour later, the room is as neat as a pin, and he says pleasantly "All done! Can you check it so I can go out?" A good friend of mine says that it sounds to her like he's just doing out LOUD what all of us do in our heads...thinking about what we wish we HAD said. I figure that extremely negative stuff attributed to my husband's side of the conversation must echo stuff he's heard at home, but it's still strange. What do you think...just "normal" trauma stuff, or reason for greater concern? *scratching head*
Do you live in my house?
Okay, the weight conversation is odd. My son does talk to himself and it's not normal. He does hear voices sometimes.
However, the angry conversation sounds more like venting and letting off steam. Not sure that's that big of a deal accept the level of anger was high and the threats to damage stuff are not good. My son does this as well. He's bi-polar and takes meds to control his anger. Does your son damage property ever when he's angry? If not, I'm not sure I'd make a big deal about it and chalk it up to hormones and anger.
Has he always done this or is it new? My son who hears voices was having conversations with his socks when he was younger so it didn't just appear.
Not sure if that helps any or not.
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Stevenstwin,
When I reunited with my youngest daughter last August and she came and stayed with us, I noticed she talked to herself as well. Heck, I catch myself from time to time talking to myself also.
I heard her say some things, not really what your son said, but similar. I think she was just venting. I know growing up, I also did the same, venting.
And if it's not normal to talk to yourself.. then I guess I aint normal. :eek: Oh well.:D But then again, like a friend of mine always said.. "there is no such thing as a normal person.". lol:p
Almost 10 years ago, when I lost custody of my oldest. I went to counseling. Because I used to take the frustration and hurt upon myself. I would starve myself, make myself throw up when I did eat, hit myself so hard it caused brusing. I had been given meds for depression.
Of course, I got over it. I don't do it anymore. Counseling helped me cope with my frustrations and the pain I was feeling. (like my heart was ripped out)
I guess if it gets worst or if your afraid he will hurt himself or you or anyone else.. you might want to seek counseling. Just a suggestion. Best of luck.:grouphug:
I was a crisis intervention counselor/case manager for severely and persistently mentally ill adults for a bunch of years. This does send up a red flag to me. I have seen this in people with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders with delusions or/and hallucinations. That doesn't mean that your son has any of these!!!
If I were you, I would go online and look at the diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders for children (I can't remember if the criteria is different for children than adults). And see if he matches the required criteria for any of those diagnoses. If you're worried you could just make an appointment with a therapist, who will get ALL of the history and ALL of the information, which is really the only way to know for sure if your guy needs some intervention. If you don't want to do that for some reason, I would keep a close eye and see whether or not he ever acts out on anything from one of these "conversations". Even if it's a really small thing... if he does, that should set off alarm bells.
The search words I'd use in google would be something like: DSM IV criteria schizophrenia children
Aundrea