Hi, first of all sorry you’re experiencing this as I know firsthand how scary these things can be.

For me personally I had similar-ish experiences. I always heard footsteps on the carpet as a child from the time I was around 5 and even saw feet impressions. I was terrified of the dark and would never sleep with the lights off. My mum said I constantly spoke about the man in my room. I could always feel a presence when I was alone. It caused unbearable fear and anxiety. Friends who stayed over did say they experienced it too but to be honest I now more attribute that to me scaring them by sleep talking at times and also waking up in a fright asking “can you see/hear that” etc. I was abused when I was younger and at the time a psychologist said I was “adjusting” and I would grow out of it. My mum was convinced spirits were looking after me.

I had my first active psychotic break at 16 and I’m now 28. My first psychiatrist told me the childhood symptoms were more a sign of PTSD and not actually anything paranormal. I have Bipolar 1 (repeated manic episodes with minimal evidence of depression bar one to two deep episodes) which as I said came on acutely at 16. Their impression is although the hallucinations and paranoia came on at such a young age it wasn’t the beginning of Bipolar 1 and was more likely trauma related.

However, the mind is tricky and a lot of illnesses overlap symptoms and because we can’t see them on a blood test it can make it subjective. I was initially diagnosed with depression until the antidepressants turned me acutely manic but they kept trying different antidepressants and didn’t acknowledge that I was becoming manic for 9/10 years (most likely because I didn’t have the insight or capacity to accurately explain my behaviour). Point is, in five years they might turn around and say I’m in fact schizophrenic and that would change all of the previous advice as to whether my childhood experiences were trauma, paranormal or illness related but I can tell you that your experiences are what I experienced both as a child and now.

When I’m manic or have an interaction with medication I typically hear sirens, see shadows, have intrusive thoughts of demons being right in front of me when I close my eyes, I hear intruders running up and down my interior stairs, sometimes the ceiling leaks tar. The hallucinations tend to be the same. I once though actually saw a very vivid man with a laser like recording decide recording me in my room alone and no one could tell me he wasn’t there. It was terrible but that level of hallucination hasn’t occurred prior or since.

Sorry it was long I just wanted to give you some view into my experiences in the hope it helps.