My 14 year old son is hearing voices again

[Bluesky]

I’m sitting up at 1:30am scared because my son had his voices came back.
At age 11 almost 12 he started hearing what I would call echoing or hearing voices but they seemed external like someone calling his name? He was very confused so we took him to the Amen clinic in our city.
They put him on

He started 2mg am:pm sarcosine
High dose of fish oil AM/ Pm
NAC 1 pill AM/ PM
And want to add 250mg l-theanine after reading it can help with positive symptoms

It seemed to work and things settled down and he seemed happy and was a straight A student in 7th grade. He stayed on that protocol for a year then I was told I could stop the sarcosine.

In April I stopped everything and I really regret that I did by August until now October beginning of 8th grade it’s been coming back but I didn’t know.

I had also gave him bened life neuralli probiotic starting 10/4 and I believe this worsened his mind fast. He just told me that he’s having a hard time with friends at school because he thinks they are talking about him. I stopped the bened life and went back to supplements that work.

I want to reach out to Amen clinic for help again tomorrow and I am setting up a cbt therapist for ocd, anxiety, ptsd, and voices to help him.

I just feel lost? Do I let his school know what’s happening? Will they kick him out if private school?

and am looking for words of encouragement- will sarcosine, nac and fish oil and l-the nine get him back again I’m so scared of medication but I feel like I’m failing him at every turn because I don’t know what I’m doing. And school is so important to him and it’s really rough to read texts where he’s so confused thinking his friends are saying stuff about him.

[hope]

Bluesky, I’m sorry you haven’t had responses. Are you in the Houston area? I ask because there is an Amen clinic in the Houston area and there is an excellent psychiatrist (not at the Amen clinic) who works exclusively with families dealing with severe mental illnesses. He is great with patients of all ages and works closely with parents.

When was the last time your son had a complete physical? Hugs to you, hope

[caregiver1]

@Bluesky, are you opposed to having your son evaluated by a traditional child psychiatrist? See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amen_Clinics#Effectiveness

[Bluesky]

Thank you for your responses the reason I haven’t given him tradition medicine because he did so well with supplements (sarcosine, NAC, high dose fish oil, and now l-theanine) and was a straight A student this past year, was happy and thriving even though he tells me the voices never went away completely. He has tons of friends and I just was confused as to what may be really happening to him.

Part of me thinks it’s his high OCD that he doesn’t know how to explain the racing thoughts, the intrusive thoughts, intrusive images, and he’s spinning out of control again or it could be a psychotic break.

Either way I want to get him the right help and relieve his fear of feeling alone in this. I reached back out to Amen clinic in my city on the east coast, and he will meet another psychologist for OCD, anxiety, perfectionism. I want to see both to make sure he gets help for OCD and anxiety long term and at the amen clinic since he was a previous patient and can guide us to what to do next. Medication is not off the table but Amen clinic isn’t quick to prescribe right away they try alternative medicine first.

after reading through this site I’ve added L-theanine and yesterday he said his thoughts felt like they were slowing down. I’m hoping this will bring him relief.

[naturally-green]

I’m no expert. I’m sorry you are going through this. Have you tested him for THC? He might be experiencing Cannabis induced psychosis, CIP mimics the symptoms of schizophrenia.

You can search it and read more about it. There’s a great parent group on FB called parents of children with cannabis-induced psychosis.

Also, it’s my understanding that sometimes symptoms get worse before better when using supplements. That might be the case with the Bened Life Supplements.

People have have had much success following a keto diet. Read Brain Energy by Christopher Palmer. Usually they can reduce their medication and even wean off completely. You might want to explore that option as your son still has a developing brain, and there could be treatments to cure him. There are lots out of podcasts and videos on YouTube where Christopher Palmer discusses this topic.
Wishing you success in your son’s treatment.

[Ihavethevictory]

I’m really glad to hear you took the natural route first. You an amazing mom for that. I don’t think there is enough awareness on natural remedies. I always think to myself what would he be like today if I never gave him the medication. Kudos to the clinic for trying natural remedies. The medication may help some and they do have a lot of side effects. I’ve read how some family members got worse on them. My son got bad TD and I don’t know if it’s reversible:(. I hope they are effective if you give it to him again. So far from what I read you will do research on any prescription medication if they are recommended. You’re doing a good job supporting your son, researching, and getting him professional help .

[Bluesky]

Responding to - THC psychosis -
thankfully he has never tried drugs and I am percent sure. - I know his main source of trauma that caused PTSD that happened when he was a 6/7 years old - i truly believed this incident stayed with him causing mental anguish, and sadly a mixture of our genes ( OCD, ADHD, possible other mental
Health traits) I got him counseling for a short while but he should have had a therapist for years not months.,
Otherwise he grew up in a loving household and told he was loved and showed he was loved.

Keto diet- Thank you for letting me know about changing his diet. I am willing to do anything and will look up your recourses about a keto diet.

Mom with son who has TD- truly sorry your son got TD. I hope there is a way to help ease TD either with natural supplements or lessening his dose. The side affects can be so scary, but I understand that psychosis and voices are scarier. I never say never with medication but it’s so overwhelming. Amen clinic made it easy when this first happened ( they did want to try medication) but we declined and went the natural way. I really had my son back and it was so nice, but now realized he may need to be on his protocol for life.
The Amen clinic wasn’t perfect and they were beyond expensive, but I like their overall approach.

I feel good being here with everyone who has walked this path. I feel alone so often and last night only got 3hrs of sleep from worrying. I stay up reading This site and reading everyone’s stories and everyone’s medication: supplements regiment lets me know that everyone is finding what works for them and no two stories are the same.

Thank you again for your support it means a lot.

[hope]

Bluesky,

I understand, you want to treat your son naturally. My son is diagnosed with schizophrenia and is unmedicated. This isn’t something that his dad and I chose, and really, it’s not something he chooses. My son has the symptom anosognosia, he doesn’t understand he has a mental illness.

I hope you understand that I am not trying to tell you that your son has a severe mental illness. Statistics say that it’s unlikely your son has schizophrenia at his age. The subject between you and I is severe mental illness only because this is a support forum for people who do have family members struggling with schizophrenia. I hope you are doing all you can on the medical side to investigate and eliminate other natural possibilities that could be causing issues for your son.

Having said that, schizophrenia and bipolar are cyclical in nature. This means that our family members have periods of time when they do not show symptoms. At first my son had periodic issues when his symptoms began to show differences that I could see. Between those periods he would be like his old self and I would dismiss my concerns.

In NAMI’s Family to Family we are taught the concept of normalizing. Those periods in which my son would be “normal” again helped me not see the reality. Again, not saying this is your situation, this is about my story.

As my son grew older the “normal” times between the “not normal” episodes grew smaller -this took years - not two or three years, a decade. Slowly but surely, my son begun to have less “normal” time between the episodes that made him struggle.

I have observed on this forum over the years that all of our family members are unique. Some of the people on anti-psychotic meds have periods where their meds are increased due to escalating symptoms. Like those people, my unmedicated son has periods where his symptoms escalate and he has periods where his symptoms decrease greatly.

The most important thing I would like you to understand is that you are your son’s best advocate. You have to guide the search and not take anyone’s word as absolute. You must question your own decisions constantly. The first thing we are told is to read everything we can find and educate ourselves about schizophrenia. You have a bigger task as you have to eliminate everything that causes psychosis as you seek to help your son.

Best of everything to you, hope

[SallyV]

I’m praying your son and guidance on the best route. I wish i had gotten my mom evaluated more than once. She refused the meds. She wouldn’t share is she was hearing voices and any symptoms that seemed like schizophrenia but i believed she was misdiagnosed. She got worse fast. If i had known it was schizophrenia i would have admitted her. After she took her life I did a lot of research and I believe her last week on earth she was in psychosis.

[C11]

My son heard some voices at 5, but never heard of again,
at 12 he said he saw these devils in the yard.
at 15, I took him to non profit where others with situation
will befriend him and there was a non profit that helped
with pre psychosis, I tried to take him, they had groups and
did things.
Go to a NAMI class, and get a support group.
look at pre psychosis, and see what can prevent.
You could try a nutritionist, if that helps.
no red dyes, gap stomach issues,
but maybe a psych.
From others I see promise with Clozapine, ivega sustena.
My son had a psychosis at 15 1/2 to 16, and into mental
hospital, now 26. Was normal prior. meds help him not be
violent, but dont make him normal. He would never participate
in nutrition, or things.

[mmm61]

RE: diet. My daughter has been on psychiatric meds since the beginning of her illness in her early teens. After gaining a lot of weight, she went carb free. She still had her illness, but the cognitive impact of it decreased significantly and she was better able to function. Inflammation can worsen mental illnesses and gluten often causes Inflammation.

[Bluesky]

Just wanted to update my situation with my son

After reading everyone’s heartfelt, helpful posts with their own personal stories of suggestions that worked or didn’t work I went down many rabbit holes since I last posted.

A poster mentioned being on a carb free or low carb keto diet helped her daughter. Searching the internet I came across Dr. Chris Palmer a Harvard Psychiatrist who believes being on a medical ketogenic diet can minimize and better yet have psychotic symptoms go into remission.That a medical ketogenic changes neurotransmitters, reduces inflammation and heals the gut microbiome. I’ve bought and read his book “Brain Energy” and watched every video I could find of him on YouTube.
He said people can get relief of symptoms ,dramatic improvement of symptoms and remission within weeks or months. Usually takes 2-3 months for psychotic symptoms to improve or resolve.

After watching his videos on YouTube we put our son ( who was a high carb vegetarian for 10 years) on this ketogenic diet. Dr. Palmer said for it to work you have to be in ketosis and the only way to know is to test. We bought urine keto strips ( which work until your body becomes fat adaptive and may need to switch to a blood keto tester)
We also bought a KETOSCAN smart breath tester to take the guess work out of the urine test strips. My son likes the KETOSCAN better at this time because it’s digital.

He’s been in ketosis for 10 days and we see such great improvements.

In that time as well I reached out to a CBT psychologist for OCD and learned he’s got severe OCD - think pure O and these distressing thoughts and images that he never told us he encounters may be the reason he’s reacting with hallucinations. They don’t align with his character of his kind, sweet self and are causing him so much distress. They suggested the gold standard of ERP therapy for his severe OCD

To ease his OCD and talking with his psychiatrist we put him on therapeutic doses of inositol. 18 grams divided into 3 doses. which I give to him in a hot tea, keto style hot chocolate, etc. Hoping eventually he can just drink in water as it’s sweet like sugar. Along with NAC 1500 mg for OCD.

He also met with a CBT for psychosis therapist and is now under her care weekly and he enjoys talking with her as the feeling of being alone and thinking he’s alone when the reality is so many people suffer from OCD he now can get everything off his mind and chest that he’s been holding in for so long and learn tools to navigate his OCD and hallucinations as the two overlap a lot.

We’re giving all of these protocols a solid 3 months to work. Not saying medicine is not an option but I want to give these protocols a fighting chance to work. There are good days and set backs but everyday there a many more good days, and I can finally see a light at the end of our tunnel.

Supplements
Fish oil - high EPA, ultra pure triglycerides - EPA alone in his fish oil has1400mg 1tsp in AM and PM
Thorne B complex
Thorne vitamin C
Thorne NAC - 1500 mg ( for OCD) anxiety
Pure encapsulations Inositol - therapeutic dose of 18g divided in 3 doses ( 3 scoops in AM, 3 scoops in afternoon , and 3 scoops in PM) for OCD and anxiety
Brainvitaminz - Sarcosine - 3grams divided in 3 doses am, noon, pm
Pure encapsulations L-Theanine - 200mg PM

Diet
Dr. Chris Palmer medical ketogenic diet 50g carbs and under- ideal is 25g and under but staying in ketosis for it to work and we test daily. He also stresses that for people with serve symptoms to be in partnership with their doctor and a keto dietician or a doctor who incorporates this ketogenic diet under their care. It’s important to to be under guided care incase symptoms flare up before they get better.

Therapy
CBT for Psychosis which will address his severe OCD

And as I’m praying this heals and fades away we can then incorporate ERP for OCD

He is under the care of a psychiatrist and therapist. He is medication free and I know that doesn’t always sit well with a lot of people in our life, but we are giving everything above a fair shot to work. We are giving it a solid 3 months and if everything above doesn’t work will explore medication ( we had his genetic testing done to see which medication would be better suited for his gene type)

Just wanted to update since I fell off and hope to post back

I wanted to share the Books about mitochondria dysfunction and brain metabolism that I am exploring because when my son age 12 and his first mild psychosis episode we put him on the supplements above ( minus inositol and l-theanine and made him gluten free for a year) at the 3 month mark he was almost symptom free.
I didn’t realize the connection, didn’t realize he had OCD pure O kind but he got better by 3 months and thrived.
Sadly after a year I stopped those supplements and let the carbs come back with his vegetarian diet and love of high carbs and are dealing with this all over again.

Finding these books and understanding so much more about our son we are better equipped to make real changes that may be lifelong. I really resonated with Dr. Palmer because his mother suffered from mental illness and he dedicated his life to finding a way to help people and wishes with what he knows now could have helped her.

Brain Energy - a revolutionary breakthrough in understanding Mental Health
Change your diet - change your mind by Dr. Georgia Ede

https://www.metabolicmind.org I follow them as well

Taken from their website
Metabolic Mind was launched by David Baszucki, founder and CEO of Roblox, and his wife, author Jan Ellison Baszucki. Inspired by their firsthand experience of the power of ketogenic diet and other metabolic therapies to send serious mental illnesses, including bipolar disorder, into remission, David and Jan created Metabolic Mind to be a trusted resource for families like theirs seeking better treatments.

In the video below, you can watch Jan, David and Matt share their story of sending bipolar disorder into remission using a ketogenic metabolic therapy–a treatment with over 100 years of evidence of efficacy in epilepsy. In addition, experts in the emerging fields of metabolic psychiatry and metabolic neuroscience discuss new approaches to understanding and treating mental disorders.

I’m sharing my path incase it can help someone else up at 1am googling ways to help their child or loved one.

[SallyV]

This is awesome! Great fire those searching for help. Thank you.

[gijane]

My son told me he started hearing voices in middle school. We didn’t realize the extent of it until he was 21 yrs old. He had a breakdown. It took years for us to get him situated with medications. He’s very compliant though. He lives with us now. He’s 30 yrs old. I think this is something we are going to have to deal with for the rest of our lives. Me and my husband are in our late 50’s now and hope we can deal with this until the end…

[SallyV]

Praying for a healing for your son. Looking back, I think my mom dealt with symptoms all of her life. She never told us. She didn’t want to be a burden

[Bluesky]

I wanted to provide an update on my son’s progress since my last post in November. A lot has changed, and we’ve learned so much along the way. Following advice from Dr. Chris Palmer and Metabolic Mind, we decided to try the Medical Ketogenic Diet to help manage his psychosis. Initially, we struggled to achieve ketosis effectively on our own, but thanks to a directory on Dr. Georgia Ede’s website, we found a psychiatrist along with her keto coach who guided us through this journey.

Transitioning from a vegetarian diet he followed for ten years was a major shift for our family. Despite the challenges, we committed to this new approach out of desperation to help him. With the support of his nutritionist, we eventually achieved therapeutic ketosis daily for months, and I saw the hallucinations fade away, and the voices keep reducing from constant daily torture to almost non-existent. It’s only been 6 months now so I hope the longer we continue with this approach the more his brain/ body heals.

During my nightly googling research on mental health disorders like psychosis and schizophrenia, I repeatedly encountered references to “inflammation and oxidative stress” as contributing factors. However, information on reducing these issues was very little. This led me to focus on improving his cellular and mitochondrial health of his cells to reduce inflammation and oxidative stress.

The ketogenic diet, centered on fatty meats, eggs, fatty fish, fatty chicken, healthy fats, and low-carb vegetables, has been life changing. This medical diet (the same diet epilepsy patients use to stop seizures) mimics a fasting state the same as Intermittent fasting without the actual fasting. Fasting is known to promote autophagy, which clears out damaged cells and supports the growth of healthier ones.

Since starting this diet in November 2023, and continuing through July 2024, his progress has been remarkable. His doctor has already reduced his medication by half because he was getting better. He didn’t need as much, and it was over medicating him. so he’s on 1.5mg as of now. another remarkable thing was after starting an antipsychotic and ketogenic diet at the same time he didn’t gain weight at all, but lost body fat and weight and gained muscle as this way of eating stabilized his blood glucose. He also continued to workout 2x a week.

Now in summer we’ve been granted some flexibility. We plan to continue with an organic, gluten free ketogenic diet without strict macro counting or ketone testing. We want to take the tools and knowledge we’ve learned from his keto coach and just eat and live organically without the strictness since he’s doing so well.

To maintain his progress, I focus on dietary choices that minimize inflammation and oxidative stress, including staying gluten-free.

I had stopped all his supplements from November and focused on Mitochondria cell health to reduce inflammation and oxidative stress.

1. Medical Ketogenic diet of fatty meats, fatty chicken and fatty fish, eggs, full fat dairy, healthy fats (avocados, olives, macadamia nuts, pili nuts, butter, ghee, tallow, olive oil, avocado oil, and coconut oil, and sugar free snacks.
2. Fatty 15
3. curcumin Curcu-gel ultra 650mg
4. Patient one Omega-3 800
5. grass-fed liver pills
6. vitamin C
7. saffron nootropic
8. Celtic sea salt
9. MCT/143 with phosphatidylcholine.

In the evening, he takes magnesium supplements for relaxation and sleep support.

1. magnesium glycinate by pure encapsulations
2. magnesium theronate magtein- only magnesium that crosses the blood brain barrier.
3. 0.5 melatonin by pure encapsulations when needed if at all.
4. thorne trace minerals
5. thorne potassium citrate

In addition to dietary changes, we’ve addressed his anxiety and severe OCD. He now sees a therapist specializing in ERP, DBT, and CBT weekly, alongside managing anxiety effectively.

I visualize keeping his brain “super fatty and juicy,” that reminds me the fattier it is the more calm and relaxed he is. He’s not living on the edge of “fight or flight” anymore.

I am sharing this update because one poster above mentioned eating a low carb diet, which helped me find the medical ketogenic diet by Dr. Chris Palmer, Dr. Georgia Eye, and Metabolic Mind. so i’m sharing the amazing response we’ve had going forward with this medical ketogenic diet for mental health, and if it could possible help someone. I know this may be out of reach for some, or not possible for others, but because I am the parent and provide all the cooking etc I could implement this in our household.

Also wanted to mention the pros /cons.
pros
1.eating nutrient dense food that actually nourishes the brain and body.
2. hallucinations and voices faded away
even on an antipsychotic he lost weight and body fat and gained muscle
3. no more searching for carbs and sugar once the diet normalized his blood glucose/ insulin and he was full and satisfied from his meals
6. he shared his knowledge and healing which inspired others to want to do the same

cons

1. cooking almost at the beginning 100 percent at home
2. always cooking and worrying is he fed well, enough fat,
3. social settings were harder
4. if they ever make a ketosis pill I would have bought it to get well faster.
5. testing ketones / blood glucose once a day or night got old real fast
6. he wanted to feel normal amongst his peers by not being on a special diet even though he did it strictly for 6 months

we finally got a hold of continuous ketone monitor which is way more effective at seeing your ketones than testing using a ketomojo and getting just one snapshot of your ketones. I now see ketones are all over the place from 0.2-5 to 2.3 since i can see the whole day. sometimes seeing a low number would make me feel like it wasn’t working when I can now see that if you’re doing the diet your making ketones but they fluctuate all day.

also wearing a continuous glucose monitor for a short while lets you see how this way of eating does not raise glucose, and keeps your numbers stable and low.