I’ve been sharing my concerns over Gavin recent psychotic break. For those that don’t know, a psychotic break is when a person loses touch with reality.
Gavin has been interesting with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle’s recently and while he refers to them as his imaginary friends, what he means is that he’s the only one that can see them.
There is a very, very fine line between imagination and psychosis.
As far as Gavin is concerned, that line is further blurred by the fact that he has Schizoaffective Disorder, which is sorta like a cross between bipolar and schizophrenia..
I sat down with him and asked him a few questions about what’s been happening with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle’s lately. This video is the result of those efforts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldzJbBhdPYI&feature=youtube_gdata_player
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Hasn’t anybody gotten their schizoaffective child tested for PANDAS/PANS or for anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis? Delusions and hallucinations are common symptoms of both of these autoimmune disorders, especially the last, which can include seizures. Duke University is a good place to seek out answers to these symptoms. A family in our support group took their extremely violent, hallucinating teenage daughter there and they found she had inflammation of the blood vessels in her brain due to autoimmunity, PANDAS, lyme. She had a brain biopsy which confirmed this, and is being treated accordingly now.
Jenny Velasquez It’s not a heat lamp. Well, it was. Now it’s a night light. It’s got a soft white bulb in it.
Hes such a sweet boy and so very brave!
Whats the heat lamp in the backround for?
My son also autistic was diagnosed at 8 with schizoaffective disorder. If you want you can PM me.
I know you are so proud. Gavin did an amazing job explaining his friends. Big hugs to all of you and thank you both for sharing
God love him…Gavin was so brave to talk about his friends, imaginary or not. It takes an awful lot of trust on his part. xxx You handled it well… he must trust you and that trust is so important…
Hard to watch.. he seemed so serious. I felt like you handled it well though Rob.
Im glad to see he communicates very well and is willing to open up to you like this. Any insight is always great especially when they tend to keep a lot to themselves. What a sweet, gentle, innocent soul god bless him & your family.
One of my friends little boy has childhood schiz and bipolar…he has been in and out of wards since he was 4 (he is 13 now). He is in constant therapy and have even tried drug trials trying to find something that will help him. The scary part with him is the “voices” tell him to hurt people or hurt himself ….he will come to his mom in tears and tells her he doesn’t want to kill her but they won’t leave him alone. It is a scary thing to watch a child go through. I am glad gavin has such a loving family that is supportive of him and there for him mo matter what. He is a very lucky young man.
Jenny A Marshman-Holloway thanks. Gavin’s been in the psych unit at least a dozen times himself. He’s been on every single antipsychotic medication there is and all stopped working. Clozapine is the only thing that has worked long term. But he’s on 800mg per day and there is absolutely nowhere let to go there. It’s already way above the FDA approved amount. We had to work out a special arrangement for that.
My son now 18 was dx at. 8 by NIH put on clozaril because nothing worked. Be aware when these kids become adults their schizophrenia changes and you may well have to do a med change. My son is now on 15 mg of haldol and for the first time is happy giggling boy. He is also Autistic. Pm me if you have questions. We’ve been through 15 hospitalizations. Good luck
My ASD son has a paranoid flavor. Delusions, auditory and visual hallucinations since 10, dx schizoaffective d/o @ 11. Managed well by abilify. He is 13. Mine would never be pleasant talking about it, that’s great!
He wanted to try and help other kids going through the same thing.
Thanks for this. Having met and worked with children that have schizophrenia, it is nice to hear it from them. There needs to be more emphasis on Mental health.