I’ve been wondering about how many of us here have been experiencing symptoms ever since they were a child, so I decided to make a poll to see how many of us there are.
- Yes
- No
- Not sure/maybe
0 voters
i had a hallucination at the age of 5 but it was a singular incident until i got older and developed psychosis
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I’m sorry that you had to experience that at that age! In a way, it’s good that you didn’t hallucinate anymore after that experience. I’ve had psychosis since I was either a toddler or six years old, and I didn’t tell my family until I was twelve because I thought that having hallucinations and delusions as you were growing up was completely normal. 
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I was easily derealizated as child. plus anguished and now when I look back, I see a lots of cognitives bad symptoms :/…
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i was young and i ran into our friends living room (as we were staying the night) i was afraid of the dark and i was put in my room in the dark and could not sleep so i got up and thats when it happened at the top of the stairs, the wall behind me turned into a hell hole with hands trying to pull me inside, i was just strong enough to pull away but it was a frightening experience for a anyone never mind a 5yr old
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spacemonkey, I thought that I am alone with all my troubles… I was diagnosed schizophrenic with anxiety and depression. I also think that I have autistic features but never was diagnosed for this… so ■■■■ up all this ■■■■…or no, I am just trying to learn to live with all this
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I hallucinated sometimes as a kid, but I don’t know if it was from extreme stress/anxiety caused by my home life, or if it was caused by mental illness, since I didn’t have my first real breakdown until I was 15.
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I had delusions and hallucinations as a child.
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This is a scary topic for me because I don’t know when it began and am aware that when I am psychotic I simply don’t really know what people are saying or even what I am seeing. So remembering my childhood is difficult at best and trying to figure out what’s happened during my adulthood is scary too because I simply don’t always know what was real and what was fiction all the time. I do find that I am finally getting less sensitive about what people say about me and realizing that no one probably completely loves or hates me 100%. So I guess as far as the auditory hallucinations goes it doesn’t matter as much as it used to. But family members have told me that my version of past events are completely different from what I remember them being sometimes.
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Had paranoia, hallucinations and delusions since as far back as I can remember. Even before I remember my mom mentions I had strange behaviors and fears.
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Not that I know of . Though I once imagined a man coming out of my bedroom closet and to this day am not sure it was a dream or not. Then there was the time I startled my mother by saying there were dogs barking in my eyes.
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I’m surprised to hear people had symptoms during childhood tbh… My childhood was great - happy, euphoric, fun. Sometimes my dad would put me down or yell but otherwise it was amazing.
My psychiatrist believes we were born with schizophrenia, it just manifests in early adulthood, which to me is a relief in some way because it means that my illness wasn’t my fault and wasn’t necessarily due to my actions and choices during onset.
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I was a happy child but very paranoid.
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I want to thank you all for voting and replying. It reassures me to know that I’m not the only one who experienced psychosis as a child, but it also saddens me to hear that there are people out there that had the misfortune of going through psychosis at a young age.
One of my oldest memories is telling myself, “You can’t think like this when you’re 8 years old. You’ll be a big girl then and thinking like this isn’t allowed.” Then a few years later: “You’re turning 10, and if you think like this when you’re 10, it will be really really bad.” By “like this,” I meant totally spacing out and imagining myself being interrogated by the FBI for having magical powers or getting into peoples heads. Was I psychotic? I’m not sure, but my doctor thinks so. It’s hard to say, because I did realize that what I was imagining wasn’t reality, but it was so clearly psychotic in content and impossible to turn off.
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I was probably depressed as a kid. Childhood depression shows up differently then major depression. I got into a lot of fights and cried a lot. I remember being a mix of sad and angry just like I am now.
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I said I’m not sure. I saw an UFO. Is that psychotic or real. I don’t know. Where is the line for child? I was 15 when I started hearing voices. Ok. I’ll change it to yes. 15 yearolds are children
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