My 14 year old son has chest pains

Hmmm... it seems your son has problems that go well beyond separation anxiety and school anxiety, if he is exhibiting these symptoms: "He has hallucinations. He sometimes thinks he is Jesus." - I presume his physicians and counsellors are aware of this?

The "anxiety" symptoms you are describing sound like they may be a condition known as PAT or paroxysmal atrial tachycardia - where there are episodes where the heart beats rapidly and "pounds in the chest" to the point where the chest area becomes painful if the "attack" is prolonged. These episodes are typically related to stress and anxiety and can often be helped, both in terms of reducing the frequency and in terms of shortening the length of time the episode lasts, through various techniques that encourage relaxation and slow, measured breathing (once an "attack" starts, the breathing patterns typically become abnormal and may lead to hyperventilating, which tends to exacerbate the "attack").

He asks me if he is retarded. He does not "get" his school work. He cries when he sees another child being picked on. He also has anger problems. I feel helpless and guilty that I can't help him and that I am exhausted by him. Does anyone know of any other reason that this may be happening? He is not stupid and he is a very good looking boy. He has a learning disability

What sort of learning disability? What are the symptoms/impairment? Has he been evaluated for attention deficit disorder?

I'm also wondering about whether there is any family history (extended family, inlcuding cousins, uncles, aunts, grandparents, etc.) that might be linked to or similar to what your son is exhibiting.

Thank you for your reply.

He was diagnosed as having separation anxiety and school anxiety. Yes the doctors were told about the hallucinations and the fact that he feels 'different' than others. I was also told that he has a 'mild' form of A.d.d. He was placed in the first and second percentile when tested at the hospital as far as shcool.

He cannot concentrate on his school work. He spends his time wondering if anyone is looking at him and gets extremely agitated and distracted if they are. This has been since kindergarten and maybe longer. He is very sensitive to how someone speaks to him. (body language, tone, facial expressions, etc.) Does not like you to address him in public at all. I cannot help him with his school work, as he does not focus. He gets upset when someone tries to teach him and then says he is dumb, even though he asks for help.

His grandmother (fathers mother) has suffered from agraphobia and depression for years. His father has had phsycological problems (depression, etc.) Siblings and myself as well. None of us have ever been diagnosed.

Ryan has been to childrens hospital and I feel as though they have missed something major with him. My older son, (21 yrs. old) has totally fallen through the cracks and now may never get a proper diagnosis or treatment, and I don't want the same to happen with Ryan.

I find it very difficult, especially when you go to your doctor and he immediately puts you on drugs, rather than finding out the problem. They are finding prozak among others in the ground water because it is so prescribed. Many doctors give it out simply because you have a sore toe. I want to know why this is happening to my kids. I want to know what it is, and if it is genetic, and especially what can be done to help. Ryan wants help. He asks every day.

With the family history you are describing, I would think it is a safe conclusion that there is some sort of genetic vulnerability certainly, although that doesn't mean there aren't other factors, including familt dynamics, at play. I'm also curious about two things you said:

1. with that family history, why or how is it that other family members have never been diagnosed? is it because the others never sought help? or because they went to the wrong professionals?

2. the reference to hallucinations still puzzles me - the rest could be consistent with an anxiety disorder, including the "mild ADD" symptoms... when you say ( or he says) "hallucinations", what does that mean? can you describe them?

I wonder if you would find this book helpful:

Elaine Aron "The Highly Sensitive Person: How To Thrive When The World Overwhelms You". Broadway Books, 1996

Hi:

Thank you for the book reference, I will definately check it out.

The other members of my family have not been diagnosed with anything other than depression. I don't know whether or not you have read the letter on my daughter. It is in the phsycology portion of this forum, under "Any help would be appreciated, troubled girl". I am pretty certain she is dealing with more than simple depression. I really do not know how we came this far with out having some kind of diagnosis on the symptoms we are dealing with in my family. My 21 year old son, who has suffered the longest with depression (of my children I mean) refuses to seek help. I tried to get him help when he was 14 and again later. He refuses the idea of medication. He knows he has a problem, but I think he fears change. I don't know. I find he has many of the symptoms of bi-polar, but I am not a doctor. He feels it is his problem and he has to live with it.

Ryan has seen alians, horrible faces swirling around him, almost as though he is seeing ghosts. He has spots in front of his eyes all the time. The doctors couldn't figure the spots out. The complaints are endless.

Lesly wrote:Ryan has seen alians, horrible faces swirling around him, almost as though he is seeing ghosts. He has spots in front of his eyes all the time. The doctors couldn't figure the spots out. The complaints are endless.

These are all visual phenomena then? No other senses involved?

How often does he have these experiences and under what circumstances - e.g., time of day, location, activities, waking up, falling asleep, that sort of thing.

As far as I know they are only visual senses and are typically when he is in bed. The latest have been twice that he has mentioned in the past few months. He saw a girl sitting in his computer chair. He said he had not gone to sleep yet. He put his head under his covers until he fell asleep. Last September he saw a boy standing in his door way. He waited until he could get up the courage to come in my room. This happened approximately half an hour after he went to bed. Those are not the strange ones though.

Trying to diagnose someone in a forum is a fool's game and that is not my intention here. However, I was puzzled by the fact that, from your description, your son's doctors didn't seem concerned by his "hallucinations".

However, I'm inclined to believe that they may not be true hallucinations, but rather something called a hypnogogic state - these are dream-like phenomena that occur when a person is falling asleep or first awakening. They can be quite vivid and often frightening but they do not have the same pathognomic significance as true hallucinations:

Hypnogogic and Hypnopompic Hallucinations. Hypnogogic hallucinations occur while falling asleep, and hypnopompic hallucinations upon awakening. Both last a few minutes. The hallucinations can be visual, auditory, or tactile and often frighten or disconcert the patient with terrifying shapes and noises. It is possible to wake up a patient during hypnogogic and hypnopompic hallucinations without further distressing them.

These hallucinations are similar to nightmares, in that they are typically more intense, and their effects last longer than mild dreams or daydreams. In the past, patients who suffered from hallucinations were sometimes misdiagnosed as schizophrenic.

Hypnogogic Images. Between being awake and falling asleep, your mind enters the hypnogogic phase. In this stage you begin to lose touch with the world around you without showing the physiological stages of sleep. Pictures form inside our heads like still photographs and although you may have never noticed them, they are there... The point that has to be made about a hypnogogic image is that it just suddenly appears, and there is no mistaking between it and something you put there consciously.

Yes, this is possible. I ask him if he was asleep and he always insists that he wasn't, but the visions he has are just the tip of the iceberg. I am a lot more concerned with the constant complaints of chest pain and his endless worrying and his thinking he is dead or dying. I realize it is not possible to diagnose online, but I appreciate all of your input. I am trying to find the hospital reports that I was given after returning home from childrens hospital. I remember it being very detailed. At that time I had taken myself off paxil, and my memory during the time I was on it is very fuzzy, so I would like to find the report and maybe give you the correct details. We just moved so the report is packed somewhere. Will post some of it when I find it.

Lesly wrote:Yes, this is possible. I ask him if he was asleep and he always insists that he wasn't, but the visions he has are just the tip of the iceberg. I am a lot more concerned with the constant complaints of chest pain and his endless worrying and his thinking he is dead or dying.

What was puzzling me was your references to "hallucinations". The other symptoms, including the chest pain, are consistent with an anxiety disorder, but the "hallucinations" are not - however, if they represent a hypnogogic state, and it appears now that they do, then they are consistent with the diagnosis of an anxiety disorder.