I am so afraid for my daughter. For two years now she has been hearing voices. She says they yell at her but she can't make out what they are saying. Tonight she woke up crying saying she couldn't make them stop. I don't want to take her to her Dr. because she isn't nuts and I am afraid that is what they will say. I honestly believe they are ghost. She seen several ghost since the age of 18 months. I know this because when she was a year and a half I was holding her and she looked back our hallway, screamed and buried her head in my shoulder. Nothing was there that I could see. Since then she has told me about a few times that she has seen different people in our house. It is over 150 years old. I don't know what to do.

You have not said how old your daughter is? The most important thing is to help her not be afraid. This will change depending on how old she is. Fot young children at night time, creating a safe environment for them before sleep. I made a picture of a unicorn and a goddess ( Lakshmi- the bringer of light) and put it up next to my daughters bed . A clairvoyant suggested that I give her something that she can feel protected by. Though she did not hear voices, she as having nghtmares and the clairvoyant said she was very sensitive. If you are christian you may prefer a picture of jesus or Mary- some figure that they beleive to be greater than themselves, and able to assist in otherworldly situations. Make sure she knows that the voices cant hurt her. It is just that some people can see and hear them, while others cant. For me the best way to deal with them is to see them as lost, and think of them as someone who at one stage in their life was a very loving being, but is a bit lost. Sometimes it can be the persons own thoughts that they hear. Help her to write down what they say, do, look like, and how they behave. So you can better identify them, and work out the best way for both of you to deal with them. IS it someone you know? You could try some exercises, where you ask her to imagine how the voices (spirits) might leave? and write it down. or to draw a picture of how she feels when she hears them, and how she would feel if they left. So she can visualise more clearly a peaceful state of being. Encourage her to be elaborate,colour it in, put in angels or unicorns, or a grandmother or someone to help look over her. Deep breathing, regulating the breath can help. It calms the mind,and also helps a person to center on their self, rather than outer influences / voices. In India the word for psychosis actually also means shortness of breath. If you are sure it is a ghost, then you can contact your local church. Often they will come and bless a house for you. They are usually very understanding in these matters. Alternately contact a clairvoyant. Or the local Spiritualists society, and find someone well recommended to see your daughter.Some Shamans, or mediums can fix the situation from a distance. Or at the least may be able to ascertain if your daughter does have mediumistic abilities. Health and nutrition is also important. Many of our members in the online spport group have said they have benefited from them- mainly zinc, VitB5 and Vit E. See Abram Hoffers books. I have found them helpful. It may be worth a try. Perhaps Marius and SAndra may also answer you? I know They had some computers stolen,so may not be able to right this moment. Most importantly, listen to her. Tell her that you will work it out together. You will look into it with her, and find a solution. This will involve making her feel safe and stronger, and a solution that suits her personally. Your love and support will help her the most. Regards Adrienne

Hi again, here is a reply to Heather from Sandra Escher. If you want to ask more questions, join the forum on this site, and you can more easily exchange messages. Regards Adrienne Dear mrs. Brumley, I read your question about your daughter. I have conducted a research on 80 childeren hearing voices and wrote my PhD from it. I hope that I can give you some advices. I do agree that hearing voices is in itself normal, but if you cannot control the voices you might get ill. getting control over the voices/visions is something that the child must do itself. no one else can do it for them. we can give advices. I send you an articel about the kind of care that the children found helpfull. most of them were not very enthousiastic about psychiatry as in clincial psychiatry it is forbidden to talk about the experiences as it might upset the child more. we do not agree. we think it is important that the child learns to undeerstand their own experiences by talking about it; getting a language for it. do not alienate from it. this in itself might reduce the anxiety. try out the technique that will give her some control. What is helpfull for your daughter you have to find out with trying it. But do not swift to quickly from method as if it does not work imediatly and if you swift to quick the child might feel even more powerless. it is difficult to give an advice about someone you do not know, have never seen. But from reading what you wrote I would advice to try to get someone, a professional I do not know the english name for (exhorgist?) as I am Dutch and at this moment not near a dictionary, who with a ritual will send the ghosts out of your house. In my research 3 children were helped in this way. Ask the national hearing voices network in Manchester about it. I think they will know such a person. it might sounds strange but I my research, I work in socail psychiatry, we found that there were several ways to get control. for us there is a strong relation between voices hearing and trauma, but that might not be the case. if i can be of any help, please mail your question to me. with kind regards Sandra Escher.

I need advice. I have a 8 yr old boy with aspergers. I understand he thinks different that most people do. I found him urinating on the living room floor. when i confronted him about it he said his brain was daring him to do it. I asked him if it was his own voice daring him, he said no it was a grumpy boy arguing with him to do it. Several times over the last year he has said his brain argues with him. I am confused. Any advice?

I was wondering if you could please explaib the realationships between imaginary friends and ghosts?

I have a 10 yr old boy who just recently informed my wife that he has voices that tell him to do bad things. some times he defacates in his pants and does not do any thing about it. He said that a voice in his head told him to do it. I am concerned and would like to get a understanding about what is going on. how do i go about handleing this situaTION

I have been hearing a "voice" since I was six. It is not in a sense though a voice. Its more of a whisper that I can't distinguish or sometimes it's as if everything I hear or think is fast-forwarded and rewound over and over. It's not a threatening voice at all. I have tried to listen to it and converse with it, but with no luck. I also gave told it to shutup and go away, normally this works. I quit hearing the voice for a few years until recently. About six months ago I started hearing it again. Since then it has grown louder and more difficult to silence. It's not a result of stress as far as I can tell. It is completely random when I hear it. It has also become more frequent. I am lucky though because my mom and girlfriend are supportive of me.

Just recently my 5 year old has started hearing voices. It is so horrifying for him. It gets so bad sometimes that he will literally try to yank his ears off. He screams so bad sometimes because of the voices and begs me to make them stop. It got so bad one time, that he ripped up his grandmother's flower garden and threw his 13 year old aunt's cards every where. This is not typical behavior. He is usually a sweet, outgoing boy. In the past we have had experiences. You know, with spirits. Everyone thought we were crazy. Our son would wake up in the middle of the night and scream that there was a bad person in the room and that they were trying to get him. We tried prayer and everything. One night, he woke up screaming, saying the bad person had hurt him and there were scrap marks up and bite marks up and down his arm. The only thing I knew to do was call a Priest. The Priest said he could not get there right away but told us to open the Bible and start to pray and to make our son pray too. He said that our son would have to want the bad person to go away too. It was a strange night for us. It was like stuff you would see in television. Doors slammed and everything. After that we have not had any problems. Now this. I really do not want to take him to a psychiatrist. They will think he is crazy.

My daughther told me about hearing voices since as far as she can remember, she is now fifteen and just informed me of this.I have sent her for assessment to apu and they all said that she is not schysophrenic it's her concious that are the voices she hears.What i dont understand is that she also sees images of people with blacked out eyesand stitched mouth all over the place.Mind you all her life she has been afraid no terrified of eyes, big eyes on people especialy.If per say the voices are her concious then explain to me why is she seeing images to?I WOULD LIKE ALSO TO MENTION THAT THE VOICES WERE POSITIVE BEFORE AND ARE NOW VERY NEGATIVE, THEY TELL HER TO KILL HERSELF. P.S PLEASE ADVISE

My ten year old son has just informed me that he hears voices. We have had problems with him at school but only when he has nothing to do. After a long talk about his behavior he told me he plays up because he is bored and that when he has nothing to do he hears voices. He hears many different ones but they are threatening to do horrible things to him even to kill him. He also sometimes has bad dreams when they do the thing that they have told him they are going to do. I stayed calm and told him that i didn't know much about it but would have a look and find out if we can do anything about it. Does anyone have any advice should i take him to the doctor or try and work it out ourselves looking on the web gives so many conflicting advice.

My son is 10 years old and a couple of months ago he told me that he cannot sleep in his bed anymore because it feels like it is shaking everynight and is scared to sleep in his bed so he sleeps in the living room or in bed with me. Plus he also told me that he has heard noises in my bedroom and choking sounds. The other day he told me that he saw a foot moving up and down in my bedroom and there was no one in there. He also told me that he is hearing a heavy breathing sound and hearing footsteps coming down the hallway. I was sitting in the living room reading a letter and my son was sitting on the couch watching t.v. and playing with the dog normal as can be, and all of a sudden jumped up and came running and crying to me yelling " I feel them stomping mom, they are coming after me". I have never seen my son so scared of anything like this. I didn't know what to say. He also told me that he feels something touching his knee. While he felt something or someone touching his knee, he was beside me holding on to me as tight as he could, and crying trying to hide behind me (as if someone was trying to get him). He won't leave my side and he won't go into any part of the house without me going with him . He won't go to the bathroom by himself either. He spend the night with my cousin to get away from the house, he and I both thought it would help, he came home telling me that he saw two hands sticking out of the curtain divider. And heard their rocking chair rocking. He told me that they were following him. But he has had more experiences at our home. What should I do? And is this for real? Scared in Moberly.....

My son is 5 and for the past few months he has been talking about the bad things that he should not do. He may say "It would be bad to stab the cat with a knife" or "It would be bad if I got a nail and stepped on it really hard." Tonight I freaked out because of the nail statement. For the past few weeks he's been tapping the side of his head and telling me that he needs to get the bad stuff out but that he can't because it's stuck to the good stuff. I asked him how he comes up with these bad things and he told me that the monsters inside his head tell him. I'm scared and confused and don't know how to help him. I broke down in front of him, which in retrospect was the wrong thing to do, but I don't know what to do to help him. Can anyone give me advice on what to do?

The othe night I was watching t.v. with my 11 yr. old daughter. I explained to her that one of the characters on the show was schizophrenic, heard voices in her head. She told me that when she was 8 yrs. old she heard voices. They didn't tell her what to do and they weren't scary or threatning in any way. She said it was a male voice but she couldn't make out what he was saying. It sounded like he was mumbling or was in another room. She said the voices went away now for 3 years. I asked if she had an imaginary friend. (She can play in her room by herself for hours). She said no and didn't understand how kids can play with someone who isn't there. I told her I had a few experiences of hearing a voice that said my name and nobody else was in the room. My mom also experienced the same thing when she was a teenager. This info. seemed to help her and make her feel like she wasn't alone or crazy. We don't think it was a ghost even though I am open to the idea of the paranormal.

The othe night I was watching t.v. with my 11 yr. old daughter. I explained to her that one of the characters on the show was schizophrenic, heard voices in her head. She told me that when she was 8 yrs. old she heard voices. They didn't tell her what to do and they weren't scary or threatning in any way. She said it was a male voice but she couldn't make out what he was saying. It sounded like he was mumbling or was in another room. She said the voices went away now for 3 years. I asked if she had an imaginary friend. (She can play in her room by herself for hours). She said no and didn't understand how kids can play with someone who isn't there. I told her I had a few experiences of hearing a voice that said my name and nobody else was in the room. My mom also experienced the same thing when she was a teenager. This info. seemed to help her and make her feel like she wasn't alone or crazy. We don't think it was a ghost even though I am open to the idea of the paranormal.

The othe night I was watching t.v. with my 11 yr. old daughter. I explained to her that one of the characters on the show was schizophrenic, heard voices in her head. She told me that when she was 8 yrs. old she heard voices. They didn't tell her what to do and they weren't scary or threatning in any way. She said it was a male voice but she couldn't make out what he was saying. It sounded like he was mumbling or was in another room. She said the voices went away now for 3 years. I asked if she had an imaginary friend. (She can play in her room by herself for hours). She said no and didn't understand how kids can play with someone who isn't there. I told her I had a few experiences of hearing a voice that said my name and nobody else was in the room. My mom also experienced the same thing when she was a teenager. This info. seemed to help her and make her feel like she wasn't alone or crazy. We don't think it was a ghost even though I am open to the idea of the paranormal.

My daughter is 7 years old. she has been acting not herself lately. She tells are family that she spits and puts tolet water in our food. She also attacked her sister and it really scared me alot. It has been 2 months now and it happens on and off. three days ago she told me she hears voices and they are telling her to do this things. and she can not stop them. I just put her in counseling hoping I can get her the best care possible. she is a loving child and is very smart. It is weird that it all started when we moved into our new apartment about two and a half months ago

my 7yrhas started to complain he cant close his eyes to go to sleep he hears children shouting in his head

My 12 year old son has recently told me that he has been hearing voices for a number of years. He says the voice is very deep and is telling him things. Unfortunately he can't remember what the voice says. He told me this started when he was young and it happened during the night. However, he says that now most of the voices are coming during the day. He may be walking with friends or playing football and he is stopped in his tracks by sudden bursts of colours/pictures and the voices start. He says is doesn't last too long but he does not know what to do. He said that he was initially frightened by the voices when they came at night but is finding it easier to cope with them during the day. Its the flashes of colour and pictures that intrigues me most as what I have been reading is that most people are just hearing noises - there is nothing mentioned about visual disturbances. Has anyone else had a similar experience.

Hi my name is Tyler Cross i am 14 yrs old and i have been hearing voices since i was little they used to scare me alot they would imitate my family members voices like one day i was in my room and i could hear my brother shouting my name and i went to go see if it was him and i found him downstairs sleeping i always thought i was crazy or something and that maybe something was happening to me and it stopped for a few years until a few weeks ago after i got out of the shower i could hear my mom screaming at me but she wasnt really there and i was just wondering what i could do about this Please i need to know if i have a gift or if i'm just plain crazy Sincerely Tyler Cross. p.s if any of you have had any expierences like me please contact me on my email and i would like to hear what has happened to you and know that i am not alone.

WHEN MY G.SON STARTED PRESCHOOL HE STARTED EXPERIENCING BEHAVIORIAL PROBLEMS- BEING AN IDENT. TWIN AND HIS BROTHER DIED AT 2 MONTHS OLD- HE WOULD OFTEN SEE HIM ON THE COUNTERS GETTING CANDY OUT AND ALWAYS VOICED HOW NHE WANTED TO GO BE WITH HIM- IT WORSENED AS THE YEAQRS WENT BY WITH HISD BEHQAVIOR-OUTBURSTS IN SCHOOL AND AT HOME- NHE STARFTED COUNSELING AND WAS PUT ON RISPERNOL- HE IS NOW 10 YEAQRS OLD AND WAS PUT ON SEROQUIL LAST WEEK, I AM SO SCARED, I WATCHED MY FATHER TAKE IT AND HE STAYED FREAKED OUT- HE THREATENED HIS SISTERS LAST WEEK, SAID HE WAS GOING TO RAPE AND KILL THEM, MY DAUGHTER IMMEDIATELY CALLED HIS COUNSELOR, HE HAD ABOUT 1 YEAR OF GOOD BEHAVIOR, AT LEAST STABLE, HE HEARS VOICES THAT SAY BAD THINGS - I FEEL SO BAD FOR ALL THESE CHILDREN- PLEASE BELIEVE ME I OFTEN FEEL STABILITY, PAST EXPERIENCES, BROKEN MARRIAGES, AND SO MANY OTHER FACTORS AFFECT CHILDFREN MORE TODAY THASN IN MY DAY I WILL PRAY FOR EACH AND EVERY CHILD AND PARENT EXPERIENCING THIS DILEMA

WHEN MY G.SON STARTED PRESCHOOL HE STARTED EXPERIENCING BEHAVIORIAL PROBLEMS- BEING AN IDENT. TWIN AND HIS BROTHER DIED AT 2 MONTHS OLD- HE WOULD OFTEN SEE HIM ON THE COUNTERS GETTING CANDY OUT AND ALWAYS VOICED HOW NHE WANTED TO GO BE WITH HIM- IT WORSENED AS THE YEAQRS WENT BY WITH HISD BEHQAVIOR-OUTBURSTS IN SCHOOL AND AT HOME- NHE STARFTED COUNSELING AND WAS PUT ON RISPERNOL- HE IS NOW 10 YEAQRS OLD AND WAS PUT ON SEROQUIL LAST WEEK, I AM SO SCARED, I WATCHED MY FATHER TAKE IT AND HE STAYED FREAKED OUT- HE THREATENED HIS SISTERS LAST WEEK, SAID HE WAS GOING TO RAPE AND KILL THEM, MY DAUGHTER IMMEDIATELY CALLED HIS COUNSELOR, HE HAD ABOUT 1 YEAR OF GOOD BEHAVIOR, AT LEAST STABLE, HE HEARS VOICES THAT SAY BAD THINGS - I FEEL SO BAD FOR ALL THESE CHILDREN- PLEASE BELIEVE ME I OFTEN FEEL STABILITY, PAST EXPERIENCES, BROKEN MARRIAGES, AND SO MANY OTHER FACTORS AFFECT CHILDFREN MORE TODAY THASN IN MY DAY I WILL PRAY FOR EACH AND EVERY CHILD AND PARENT EXPERIENCING THIS DILEMA

My 5 yearold told his teacher about the voices 2 days ago. Now he has ben telling me about it. The voices tell him to do bad things, if he doesn't then they will hert him. what do I do?

My story is a bit different because my 13 yr old son has told me that he hears a man in his head but he can hear what he is saying and it doesnt appear to be negative. The man (who is by the sounds of it from a different dimension) tells my son things like he came to find Albert Einstein but missed him; humans are sort of rated 2 for normal, Einstein was 2.1 and he says my son is a 2.8. He shows him a picture of the world being surrounded by triangular shapes with 3 lights on and that the end of the world will be in about 40 years. This is only an abbreviation of some of the things that my son has told me. I don't know what to do. My son also says he can read peoples minds, like see their memories and he can also affect what they are going to do. Has anybody come across anything like this. Any advice would be most welcome. I really don't know what to say to him.

Well, I have an 8 year old daughter who is hearing voices. They say her name over and over again, sometimes loud and somtimes whispering. She can't tell whether they are child or adult voices. It happens mainly at night when she is in bed - but it doesnt make a difference if she is in our bed or her own - she will still here them. She sometimes hears them during the day as well and also when at school. She used to see things when she was younger - one night she saw a women crying for her baby and a little boy whose hands were full of pencils but he was walking and people kept giving him more pencils. She has also seen my brother (who passed away when he was a baby) sitting on my shoulder laughing (I never would have talked about him to her). I asked her if the voices say anything else and she said no - I asked her does she say anything to them - but she doesn't. I went to a clairvoyant a while back and she told me one of my children was highly psychic. Any ideas on what I should do.

What my 8 yr old just told me sounds like a lot of others comments on here. He just came 2 me n said that last nite when he was sleeping he had a dream of hearing voices n sounds but could not make out what it was. When he woke up he could still hear the voices. He said he also had this happen to him a couple times before. Just at night, in the middle of the night..he will get up n come check the house for sounds and everyone is asleep n he goes back 2 his room and can hear the voices again...but does not hear them in rest of the house. My son is an excellent student and always gets 100's he sometimes gets bored at school so he can get spoken to..he listens well at home n is a sports player. Does anyone know if he may have over active imagination? Maybe he hears voices of a ghost at night? I know he isnt crazy, and like many other mothers on here know the difference between someone whose possibly schitzophrenic or maybe gifted? I dont know what 2 do to help him, anyone have suggestions of how 2 help their child deal with this..he did say the voices were yelling and it scared him but again couldnt make out what they were saying. No visuals. Thanks...Hopeful in Maine...

hi>My daughter has been hearing voices for about 3 years. Recently they became more insistant ie yelling at her , telling her where to find things to cut herself, threatening her if she tells someone about them, threatening to hurt those she has told,waking her up at night and knocking on the door. Its hard to no how to help her deal with this. She feels like there is no way out of this situation accept suicide. She wonders if she is schizophrenic or possessed by demons.I have no answers for either.

My son, 12years old, recently told my husband and me that he heard voices and sometimes at night time he will wake up and hear them and it is hard to go back to sleep. I actually had this problem when I was young as well so I sympathized with him. However, my husband told him he sounded crazy...I know, very supportive! He even told me that what I described to him sounded like what schizophrenics deal with. I told my son that it was common (I didn't know this at the time, just trying to make him feel better) and told him that when it happened to me, I didn't like it and would pray over and over for it to go away and started to pray until the voices went away. I would like to think we are both pretty normal. I do not have this problem anymore and I am 31. I hope he doesn't have to deal with it much longer. I wanted to find out from this website ways to help him cope to make them go away.

I just read Clare's post and it is almost identical to what I am experiencing with my 8 year-old daughter. I am very familiar with psychology and so have been hoping that what she was telling me wasn't the early signs of schizophrenia. I have always thought that this daughter was more sensitive to things going on in our home, as I have been over the years, and has seen and heard things that I have also - footsteps, a voice in the hallway, etc. She told me that the voices only call her name, don't tell her to do anything and that she has seen people in the neighborhood when she is on her bike that then disappear. This doesn't seem to bother her other than they annoy her sometimes. I am thinking of taking her to the pediatrician but don't want to get crazy with over diagnosing her. Any suggestions?

Hi, My daughter is now 11, but first reported hearing voices when she was 7 years old. This begun with her heaing noises such as horses and snakes. She then begun hearing the voices who would tellher to complete various routines and rituals and give her negative comments. The next 'experience' to develop was for her to see things, such as wild dogs, spiders, reptiles, people, ghosts, aliens and spirits. on occasion, she also has 'tactile hallucinations' or strange bodily sensations such as her head changing in size or the feeling that she is falling. Two years ago she begun to tell me that people were spying on her or following her. Much of the time she manages, but on occasion she is terrified or stressed by their existance. She also sees things changing shape and colour. More worringly she has walked out on to a road because her voices told her to andpicked up knives. Thankfully i was there to pull her back. On occasion, she seems confused, stares in to space or seems to 'blank' out. We have been on a long journey and over all have found the psychiatric approach at best ineffective and at worst damaging. My daughter was in a leading London children's hospital for 5 months, which was perhaps the worst thing I to do. While in there she begun to self harm. Their approach was to ignore teh voices and distract her. She was offered no psychological support/techniques to manage the voices ad while in hosptial begun to self harm. When I raised my concern with staff it was not addressed. At times my daughter would beg andplead with me to remove her from the hospital, which eventually I did - only to be told taht if I did not return her then my daughter maybe removed on an emergency child protection order. The situation deteriorated in terms of my relationship with the hosptial and my daughter was made teh subject of child protecton plan with the implication that I has somehow caused these voices. This was devastating as I have provided consistent and loving support for my daughter and only ever wanted her to receive help for her to manage the voices, which can impact upon her day to day activities. I now feel isolated and my daughter does not trust the psyciatrists, who were supposed to have supported her. We were fortunate to have found the support of a London based project called 'VOices Collective', who have a refreshing and unique approach to these 'experiences' and who are providing my daughter (and I) with well needed support. My daughter is very positive about the project and i thoroughly recommend them to anyone in a similar situation to my daughter. At the moment my daughter is refusing to see her psychiatrist (saying she feels a knot in her stomach whenever she attends an appointment). Her attendace is a requirement of the Child protection plan, so we are in a dire situation at the moment. I would like a second opinion on my daughter, but it is very difficult to obtain and I do not have th funding to do this independently. There is little choice in who you see within the mental health system in the UK due to funding. I hope all you parents out there will find answers and the support your children need.

I'm fourteen and I started hearing a voice December 2008. It was male, and sounded angry and talked made-up words, but I only heard it every few weeks. Near the end of the school year, Summer 2009, I began hearing him twice a week, three times at the most, along with two female voices, one sweet and girlish, and another angry. They never speak English. I have hid it for a while now, and I only heard them at night so it was easy to hide, until I went into serious withdrawal from my antidepressant and heard it during the day. I panicked and couldn't stop crying and told my mom, because I had thought I was safe during the day. Now she wants to send me to the hospital. I had been there recently for attempting suicide (I have suffered from depression before I started hearing them), but never told them. I'm scared to go back! What alternatives are there? BTW I also smell things other people can't like roses and rotting flesh. If anyone can offer input, it would really help. I'm so scared.

I know a little boy who is 5 he is mean to his mother,she asked him why he was mean to her and he said i love you but the red ants inside my head tell me to be mean to you..anyone know what this means?