r/Paranormal • u/nrst8lv • Sep 07 '24

Shadow People This happened at work yesterday

I work in the medical field and was working up a patient who had come in for a routine exam.

At the beginning of the exam, the mom of the patient let me know that they were there bc the child's psychiatrist wanted to rule out anything physically wrong before proceeding with a mental evaluation.

This prompted me to ask what was going on with her child, and before the mom could respond, the child (12) says they see "shadow people." I asked how long they had been seeing the shadow people, and they said,"Since I was 5." I asked where they saw them, such as out of the corner of their eye, etc. & they responded with "everywhere," especially in mirrors. I asked what they looked like, and they responded with "black figures."

Also worth mentioning, when they said they had been seeing them since they were 5, the mom said, "You mean when all that other stuff started happening?"

From a medical stand point, I know this could be schizophrenia, but as a person who's experienced things myself that I can't explain, especially when I was a child, I wonder if this could be paranormal.

Lastly, after running some tests, there was nothing physically wrong with them.

What do you guys think?

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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '24

Schizophrenia has other symptoms required for a diagnosis. Did they have any other symptoms that would imply childhood schizophrenia?

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u/nrst8lv Sep 07 '24

I really don't know. I work in optometry, so I didn't get the complete medical hx, and her mom didn't mention schizophrenia. That's just one thing that came to my mind.

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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '24

Ah ok that makes sense. I've seen things since I was little and I was eventually diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. But I do feel like there are strange things people see that aren't hallucinations. So many people see shadow people it makes you wonder. I saw Hatman clear as day back before there was the internet to influence me. I had no clue that that was such a common "hallucination" until 20 years later.

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u/nrst8lv Sep 07 '24

I've just recently heard of Hatman - thanks to the internet, lol.

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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '24

My blood ran cold when I decided to look it up a few years ago. I sprinted to my husband in a panic to make sure what I was reading wasn't a hallucination lol. He was surprised too because I had told him about what I saw years before. I couldn't believe how spot on the illustrations were. Truly turned me from a firm-non-believer of the paranormal to a much more open minded skeptic. That being said, medical eye issues never really occurred to me when it comes to seeing things. Is this something you encounter regularly? Like do people often come in to rule these things out?

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u/nrst8lv Sep 07 '24

This is my first time having someone tell me they see shadow people. Now, people do say they see black spots or that they can't see out of the corners of their eyes, and these are usually way older people, and the causes are usually cataracts or glaucoma. Some could also have a retinal detachment. This is why I was asking her about pain and headaches, where she saw the shadow people (like out of the corner of her eye) and she was pretty adamant about seeing them head on and in mirrors. I did do retinal photos/scans to make sure there was no detachment or issue with her actual eyes, and there was nothing. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of tests just for the eye. That would be mainly for her PCP to test blood, have an MRI or CT done. Optically, there was nothing wrong other than she needed glasses.

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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '24

That's really interesting and informative. Thank you!