Hearing horrible voices: how can I support my daughter?

[Agape76]

Hi,

My 21 year old daughter was diagnosed BPD in December 2015. The thing she/we struggle with most is the voices she hears (consultant psychiatrist says they're not psychotic).

She's had the voices to an extent for about 6 years. Over the years they have become more and more intrusive and controlling, leading her to self harm and make many suicide attempts in the last few years and give up studying as they were so noisy she just couldn't concentrate.

Various medications haven't made any significant difference. Earlier this year she had about six weeks where they were far less intrusive, but recently they came back and she's devastated as she had hoped she was 'getting better'.

She finds it extremely hard to discuss with anyone as when she acknowledges the voices they get worse... .

I'd love to know if anyone else's child has experienced anything similar and how they've been able to support them. Thanks :-)

Our objective is to better understand the struggles our child faces and to learn the skills to improve our relationship and provide a supportive environment and also improve on our own emotional responses, attitudes and effectiveness as a family leaders

[lbjnltx]

I'm so sorry to hear that your d is experiencing this.  At my d's worst she also had auditory and visual hallucinations.  From the research I did the best I could figure is that she was in a state of psychotic depression.    It was not long after she revealed that she was having these things occur that she went into long term Residential Treatment.  After a month or so at the RTC the audio/visual hallucinations stopped and to the best of my knowledge they have never returned.

It is also possible that these occurrences are related to drug and alcohol use past/present for those who partake.  My d had no drug or alcohol use to look to as the source.

Hoping that her t and pdoc (psychiatrist) can address this in a meaningful way for your d.

lbj

[esmaine]

My daughter was diagnosed BPD 3 years ago and started hearing voices last october 2 months after the birth of her baby, there is still confusion as to whether its a symptom of BPD of post partum depression, all I can say is that she is back on olanzapine 10mg a day and it seems to of calmed the voices down.

I did some research which advised her to keep a diary of the voices and what they are saying and at what times they seem worse, eg is stress a trigger. Its just to help her to try and take some control, its still a work in progress really.

[DisneyMom]

At the worst point in my DD's illness, at age 14, she heard voices while under extreme stress. The first time was during her 2nd hospitalization. With my DD, when her depression lifted, the voices stopped too. Honestly, I think the cocktail of antidepressants and anti-anxieties they had her on were doing more harm than good. AND being in a hospital or residential environment did more harm than good too (though at the time I don't know what else we could have done) The only med that helped at all was Lamictal. And she had to stop that after a month due to rash. She's 16 now, and at home. We've been through recovery, and some relapse as well this year. But the more we keep her life normal and OUT of hospitalization (despite struggle with destructive impulsive behaviors and recovering self harm addiction) the healthier person she is. And I'm happy to say she hasn't fallen as deeply into illness, or gone back to hearing voices.

[Agape76]

Thank you all for your responses, it just helps so much hearing others' experiences.

I agree, it's a work in progress - trying to work out what helps and what doesn't. Frustratingly, when she tries to take back some control and discuss the voices or journal about them it seems to rapidly deteriorate and has led to crisis several times. I feel she's pretty 'safe' at the moment and she's able to tell us when she's not ie. We need to lock medicine away and keep a very close eye on her, so I guess I need to give it time... .even though I'd really love a quick fix now!

Again thank you all :-)