Thursday, October 09, 2008

What's Your Experience?

I am no expert on hallucinations and had no idea that part of the concern for Patches is she is only having them at home. This is going to sound weird and I am not sure what to think about this myself, but it is something to think about. Patches described the people she sees in therapy and she commented that they were dead. Where she got this she doesn't know, she feels like they are dead. She was asked for the first time to describe their clothes and with her limited vocabulary all we got was "dirty pink weird dress". I have no idea what that meant. After she left the room the AT suggested that she has never heard a child with voices and visions describe things like she does. This is not normal for a delusional child. Great, now what? She told me to look into the house's history to see if I could find this little girl and boy that she is talking about. I laughed b/c I thought she was joking. She wasn't, she insisted she would never admit it and she has never suggested anything like this to any of her patients. She said it is just strange the way she talks about seeing them the way she does and that it is only at home. Patches thinks every one she sees is dead, including our dog that she sees regularly out her window by our barn.

Just to make things worse, I had an "experience" last Friday. We had all the kids that were home watching a movie in the living room with us. We were expecting Patches and Ava to return soon. I very distinctly heard "Mom" being called from the front door/stairs. I hit pause and hollered back. Everyone looked at me crazy and I insisted someone called me. Every one was there. Weird? We started the movie and about the time I stopped thinking about it, I heard it again. This time I got up and went to look. No one. It gets weirder. I went back to the movie, again absorbed in it when I heard it right by my ear. I could almost feel the breath of the child calling me. I turned fully expecting to see Ava in my face. No one. I texted my DH sitting on the other sofa and told him what happened and I was getting freaked out. He tried to laugh it off but mentioned that perhaps Patches was just "sensitive" and this house had ghosts.

In the session today, Patches did tell the exact same story she told in family therapy this week. We had thought it sounded like she was adding to it as we asked but her session today was the same. Nothing added, nothing left out. She heard someone clapping in the middle of the night Monday. She went to get up and see what was going on, thinking it was my DH and the kids. She barely opened her door when she saw a boy and girl clapping and laughing on the stairs. She was too afraid to leave her room and closed the door. They stopped making noise and eventually she went back to sleep. I believe her. I am not sure what that means, but I do.

15 comments:

Mongoose said...

Personally I think ghosts are a lot nicer than schizophrenia and although I don't experience them myself, I have no reason to rule them out either. I would also look into the history of the house and also ask her to draw the children. As far as helping her feel comfortable, maybe discuss the concept of ghosts with her, she might feel better if she doesn't feel that this is "something wrong with her", in fact, I think it's a pretty cool gift. Also as I haven't heard of ghosts causing harm to people, and these children are not mean to her, she might be less scared thinking of them as ghosts rather than something wrong with her brain. She has enough in her life without thinking she's seeing things that are not there, too. Of course you'd want to explain to her that it's just a theory and a lot of people don't believe in ghosts, though it won't stop her telling you you lied to her about ghosts at some point when she's angry, I'm sure.

But yeah, I'd much rather it be ghosts than mental illness.

Megamom said...

Freaky! I dont have any experience with this kind of thing(thankfully!) but have you prayed over the house?

Kelly said...

Creeeeeepy! Do you know the history of the house? I have never believed in ghosts but that's all creeeeeeepy! :o No experience thank goodness!

Unknown said...

Okay...I'm gonna share a weird tale (I'm a writer, I like weird tales!) So when the tsunami happened many years ago I was writing a horror film, so I was freaked to say the least. It was raining like crazy in Los Angeles and I just had a "sense" that someone was in the apartment with me, in fact I "knew it". Since I meditate, I sat on the floor and started meditating, I felt a rush of children, flooding past me, some held me tightly, others passed by with a whizz of air and one little "boy" stayed in my kitchen, I called him to me and "held" him. I then called a friend who is empathic and she immediately said that there were children in my home and told me to tell them to go to the light. (ala Poltergeist, right?)The next night was women and the last night was men. By the last night I was quivering. I was visibly shaken. I met a friend who is Japanese on the stairs of my apartment building and he noticed my altered appearance, I told him about my weird happenings and he said that he would have the same things happen to him, until he called a Buddhist Monk friend of his in Japan who told him that a portal to the other side was located in his apartment and that is why he experienced all the strange happenings (which he had complained about for years, as I was one of the people he complained to) turns out this monk moved the portal (which I guess can not be "moved" moved) to my apartment...THANKS!

Anyway didn't want to freak you out, but well..you may have ghosts :-)

Anonymous said...

I know this is going to sound crazy, but maybe she is hearing and seeing these things for real. I know a lot of people don't believe it, but we do live very closely with the spiritual world. See just might be sensitive enough to see these things for real. Didn't you mention that some of her family claimed to see dead people too? It does seem that whatever is going on is escalating if you start hearing who ever or what ever it is too. Told you it was going to sound nuts.

This is my first time commenting and I just wanted to say that I have great admiration for you and your family. You are doing an awesome job and I know for a fact that I would not have been able to do it.

Anonymous said...

Oops! Forgot to leave my name on the previous comment (first time commenter)

Unknown said...

We lived in the country house for about 3 years, and as soon as Ethan could talk he would talk about "that man" one night I put the chips up on top of the frig and about 20 minutes later, Ethan (little 2-3 yr old) came out with the chips, I asked how he got them, he said "Daddy" but Daddy was at work...Ethan saw him, we did not. When we moved, we never heard about "that man" again. I feel for you!

mrslilypond said...

Perhaps, just perhaps, you should check into the history of the house. While I've never experienced anything like this myself, I don't discount the possibility that such things exist.
If something turns up, perhaps you could look into findin a medium to help Patches deal with this gift.

I'd much rather have this than being medicated for a mental illness she doesn't have.

Alyssa's Mom said...

When my Dad lived with us before he died, He always told me he would see a little boy. I thought he was nuts!

Well, one day, he called me and said "He is right there! Can't you see him?" I knew my Dad was wide awake and now VERY freaked out. So was I!

I really didn't know what to do so I had our house blessed.

Dad never saw him again!

Lisa said...

P.S. Hope your head feels better...

Torina said...

Ooohh, I LOVE ghosts. I love watching shows about ghosts. I love haunted places. I have too many ghost stories to share. I do agree that ghosts would be so much better than schizophrenia. Next time the ghosts are playing in the middle of the night, maybe your daughter could just tell them to go to bed.

Crayon said...

you've got to watch the movie "The Others"!

It may sound weird, but I hope it is ghosts and not her mind. Creepy though. Let us know if you have any updates on this...

Tudu said...

I agree with all of you that I would much rather she be dealing with being sensitive than a mental illness. Life would be interesting but manageable. I will update if I find anything out. Thanks for all your personal experiences.

Carnine, I love the movie "The Others"!

Crayon said...

I'm saving The Others to watch again on Halloween. "someone took down all the curtains!"

Eva Carper said...

That would be extremely hard to deal with if you didn't believe in ghosts. I never did either until I lived in a haunted home in college. I saw them, they touched me, they moved through walls, I heard them, they locked me in rooms... It sounds so incredibly crazy, but there are things in this world that we don't quite understand. Just as Lorie mentioned, they need to be helped into the light. Some of these people do sessions by phone. It might be worth a try.

http://www.bridgestohealing.com/practitioners.htm

Otherwise they will stay in your home or follow her. She is a very sensitive little girl to be able to see them and very brave to share it with you. It is frightening even as an adult to have that experience. Just let her talk about what she sees, that will help.