Blog 55: "Introducing Child M"

Introduction
When you learn how to work with Nebulous Children, that learning will transfer onto other children when faced with an adverse or alarming situation. You begin to recognize symptoms that can be indicative of a variety of mental health impairments. You will know what interventions need to occur to improve a child’s livelihood. Increased knowledge can help you to recognize when a child is being afflicted with symptoms of mental illness, (e.g., moodiness, cutting, worry behaviors). Then, the recognition of other symptoms or challenges that may be contributing to that child’s difficulties. Teasing out symptoms of mental illness versus the ability to see ghosts has not always been easy but was completed for many children. Child M is an example of how I was able to distinguish between mental health versus the ability to see ghosts.

Introducing Child M
Child M’s behaviors were odd to me. There is no other word to describe it. "Odd" behavioral presentations are red flags to me. Child M was a calm child with a speech impairment. A child who presented as healthy due to his or her obvious intellectual level.

Of Note: Children who perform well academically in school and behave appropriately are often overlooked as having challenges with mental health.

Child M was one of those kids who was ignored by others, including his or her parents. This often happens when a child does not behave in a manner that would alert the parents as something being wrong. That is completely understandable to me; however, parents should not be so quick to discount symptoms that a mental health professional observes within their child. Child M's symptoms alarmed me because they have the potential of worsening with age. 

As I worked with Child M, I hypothesized whether or not the observable behaviors were due to the ability to see ghosts. Reason being, it was obvious that Child M was either seeing or listening to something not visible or audible to me. How did I know? Because I have experienced this a few times in my career while working with children, and for Child M there were clear indications of one or the other happening.

Put Your Mental Health Hat On
I had to ask what was happening to determine the catalyst for Child M's behavior. Remember I mentioned that I refrain from asking children directly if they can see ghosts? Nebulous Children will typically tell me that they can see ghosts which is why I do not have to ask them. However, Child M’s behavior was different than what I experienced with Nebulous Children. Child M was repeating was he or she heard which again, was not audible to me. It was clear to me that Child M was having auditory or visual hallucinations and my guess was that it was auditory. I watched this child carefully to prepare my questions. I observed how he or she communicated with the auditory hallucinations; the pauses in between communicating his or her thoughts, and the infrequent eye contact while listening to or seeing what was not present. 

​Years of experience is a great teacher. Inexperience with psychotic disorders can cause misinterpretation of Child M's symptoms. Inexperience will cause an automatic thought of Child M's symptoms being attributed to thought processing and determine that this is not problematic. The inexperienced clinical needs to seek consultation from more seasoned mental health professionals if encountering a child with visual and/or auditory hallucinations.

Ask clinically-related questions! Conduct a structured clinical interview. If a behavior is extreme which in this case it was, create your hypotheses as I did. Observe the behaviors. Child M's pauses were extreme; occurred after each verbal statement, and happened in correlation with the mumbling of words to whatever he or she was seeing or listening to prior giving a verbal response or answer. This was not considered normal communication. A 3rd party was involved in this communication who was not in the room.

In this case, I did ask directly,
"Who are you talking to?"

Child M was listening to a variety of voices that he or she was hearing. The voices are what he or she wad listening to when pausing for extended periods of time while communicating. Child M did not like talking to anyone about the voices. I said,

"A lot of kids talk to me about things that they see, such as ghosts. I hear a lot of things from children. I am a safe person to talk to about the voices. You can trust me."

That brought a lot of comfort to Child M, and even smiles which was a newly observed behavior. At that point, Child M shared a significant amount of information with me about the voices. This included the number of voices heard, names, and the length of time that they have been heard. Child M was a “silent child,” who isolated him or herself, had no social circle of friends, and did not include his or her parents in knowing about the voices mentioning,

"You are the only person that I’ve told (about the voices)."

Child M smiled and took a deep breath.
"There are numerous voices."

Each voice was not pleasant. One voice; the main one who had a name, protected Child M from the other voices. Many of the voices were mean and scared Child M. Child M stated that the mean voices are typically quiet and fearful of the main voice. The main voice had a conversation with me. The main voice also quieted down as I spoke to Child M about what these symptoms mean and how we can work to decrease the voices. Child M tried to get the main voice to respond after I discussed disclosure with parents, but Child M shared,

"The main voice is quiet now."

"Of course, it is quiet now! I am preparing a plan to help you." Child M began to trust me. Please know that a Nebulous Child would recognize this voice as being a dark angel and would tell me. I have witnessed this in the past between a Nebulous Child and a sibling who heard voices. Nebulous Children can also hear ghosts and they sometimes talk to them. According to Nebulous Children, dark angels disperse when I am present because I pray for protection. Could this be the reason that this voice quieted itself to Child M? I have no idea, but that was my past experience with Nebulous Children and it seemed to assist me with giving Child M some peace. I encouraged Child M to share this information with his or her parents. I appreciate having parents work with me to assist their children. 

Parents
1) Therapy

• There is a stigma, or a negative attitude, attached to receiving therapy. 
• Stigmas can make mental health worse.
• It is not shameful to seek help when needed. 
• Try not to allow fear of treatment prevent you from seeking help of your children.

2) Interventions

• Recognize when your children need help. If a problem was alerted to you, do not ignore it. 
• If mental health professionals encourage you to seek therapy for your child, ask questions and proceed if you deem it necessary.
• The notion of, "There is nothing wrong with my kid” only ignores the problem.
• Talk to school professionals to assist you with developing a school-related plan to learn about services at school.

3) Social Relationships

• Encourage your child to participate in age-related peer activities.
• Monitor and minimize time used on electronic devices.

4) Isolation

• Isolation is not a good idea for children and teens.
• Dissuade your child from detaching from society. 
• If your child is isolated, then find out what is going on and why.
• Ask questions and let them know that it is ok to express themselves.
• A child who chooses to isolate themselves should concern you.

Conclusion
Child M bothered me.
The voices concerned me. 
The parents not knowing about the voices troubled me.
A parents’ rejection of mental health treatment or intervention services for their child...
…baffles me.

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