I am hoping that you good folks can provide me with some feedback. I am really concerned about my friend’s daughter. She is 14 years old, and within the last 6 months, she has displayed behaviors and such that lead me to think it’s possible she is schizophrenic. Here are the things that have been observed:
She has always been on the shy side, but now seems to be quite withdrawn much of the time. She stares down at the ground a lot, doesn’t talk much of her own accord and trying to talk with her is extremely hard. You’ll ask her a question, and she’ll just stare at you. Sometimes she’ll move her mouth like opening it and closing it and yet doesn’t answer. And I’m talking simple questions like what is her favorite color. Then all of a sudden, she’ll like snap to and answer.
Oftentimes she gets this look on her face that she is holding back laughing, even when laughter isn’t called for. In addition, she will smile. We were watching a movie together a couple of weeks ago, and I was observing her from the side, and she would periodically sort of grimace and smile at nothing.
She developed a rapid eye blinking.
She does odd things like one night her mom made some steamed shrimp in the shell, which she has eaten many times, and she just started eating the shrimp with the shell on it. When her mom told her that she had to take the shell off she just said, “ok” and kept eating it with the shell on. Or let’s say you’re walking down the street and there’s a puddle of water…while everyone else would walk around it, she would walk right through it, seemingly obvlivious.
She and her sister were over at my house for an afternoon, and she played on my laptop back in my bedroom for awhile. That night, when I went to bed, I discovered that she had urinated on my bed while sitting there. This was in the middle of the day and I have a bathroom right off of my bedroom. This really alarmed me.
About two months ago she had a spell where she cried constantly for a couple of days. She also told her brother that Santa was on the roof, and that someone was saying, “it’s cold out, let me in”.
She stares a lot. Just stares. Not a bad stare or evil stare of anything like that, she just stares at you. It’s extremely difficult to have a conversation with her.
Sometimes she really looks a mess. She’s never had very good grooming habits, but sometimes they are really bad.
Sometimes she seems to have a very flat affect.
I feel really worried about her. She’s just not the same kid anymore. She definitely does not do any drugs or anything like that. I believe it’s mental issues and I am so scared for her. Her mother does have an appt. but the earliest they could get her in was a month from now.
Do you think it’s possible that this is what she is suffering from?