It has been said that poltergeist activity often accompanies teenagers. Well in my case this is true.

Growing up I never had much of a stable home life and I was pretty much left on my own. As I began puberty, things at home became worse. My mother and I basically couldn't stand to be around each other. As time went by, I became very much an angry, confused and frustrated young girl.

The house in which we lived in was nothing fancy. It was just your average one story home, which included a basement. Now I have to emphasize that most of my life I have been living in that house, and not one single strange occurrence ever happened. I was not even aware that ghosts existed, for nothing paranormal had ever happened to me before. But boy was I in for the shock of my life.

Ok on with the story, I was 14 and home alone one stormy Friday night. I was just watching some T.V., when I heard my bedroom door slam shut really hard. This was a really loud bang and it echoed through out the house. I was frightened. My first reaction was to call the cops, because I thought someone had broken in. But then BANG the door slammed wide open again. I went to investigate only to discover that there was no one in my room. I was freaked out, but relieved to discover no one was breaking in. I passed it of as just some sort of draft and I sat back down to watch some more T.V. when it happened. I began to get scared for no reason at all. This was unusual I could not explain it. It was as if the environment had turned into one of malice and dread. I had to get out of there, so I spent the night at my friend’s house and did not return until the next morning.

Nothing really happened when my mom was there, but as soon as she left (which was most of the time) things started to act up. Usually the feeling of dread and fear would overcome me and then the noises started to occur. It was this faint sound of someone whispering from the corner of one room and then the sound would engulf the whole house. It was strange I could never pinpoint where the exact origin of where the sound was coming from. But again my first reaction was not that of fear of ghosts but of fear I was beginning to lose my mind. Immediately I thought I was going schizophrenic. It does run in my family and I knew I was prone to getting it.

Alone and afraid I was turning schizo, I withdrew even further from my family and friends. If I was schizo I did not want my family to know, because I was almost certain I would be put in an institution.

The weird thing was that when I was not at home, things seemed fine, but as soon as I got there it was as if all hell would break loose. My mom started accusing me of stealing her jewelry, which was kept in a little safe inside her room. I swore up and down that I had not even touched her jewelry, but she did not believe me. “I’ll call the cops on you.” she said and then dropped the subject. The next day my mom came up to me and said “I see my threat worked.” “What do you mean?” I said. She then went on to tell me that she had found her missing jewelry on top of the safe. “It wasn’t me.” I protested but she refused to believe me. “Do you mean to tell me it just vanished and reappeared on top of the safe by itself? Get real.” And with that I refused to even comment, It sounded stupid to argue against logic. But I was scared now. Really scared, of losing my mind and being accused of something I did not commit.

The jewelry was not the only thing that went missing. Things like pens, books and keys turned up missing regularly and then reappeared in the oddest places, such as the clothes hamper or the refrigerator. My mom’s accusations that I was stealing everything did not stop. But one time when she threatened to report me to the cops again she came home to find something strange. The family pictures that were kept on top of the fireplace were misplaced. Every single picture that she came out in was thrown across the room, and one really big picture of her alone was thrown so hard it broke the glass. This time she knew it was not me because I had left the house earlier while she was still home and nothing was misplaced.

Meanwhile at night while I was asleep, strange things began to happen in my room. Loud knockings next to my bed kept me awake, not to mention the inaudible whisperings that had occurred previously suddenly became clear and commanding voices. At night I would hear it. It was predominantly two voices that I heard, a female and a male. The female would say things like “Nobody likes you and You’re worthless.” While the male would say things like “End it all, just kill yourself.”

Those experiences with the voices were rare and not as common as the rest of the other paranormal stuff was but still I refused to believe it was anything other than my own mind going crazy. I began suffering from insomnia to top it all off and my grades at school started to slip. Even though I was in such turmoil at home, school was like my sanctuary. I was a good student and often received awards for my achievements. But now I was looking at failing the 9th grade. (Fortunately I didn’t) Anyways the councilors called me in one day and asked me about my grades. I explained what was going on with me and told him I thought I was going schizophrenic. I pleaded with him not to tell my mom but a special parents meeting was called in anyways. I had to be evaluated by a psychiatrist to my dismay but she found that I was not going crazy. I was sane, but then a much scary question came up. If I was not going crazy, where or what were the voices coming from?

To my surprise my mom admitted something to me on the way back from the psychiatrist. She said “You know those voices that you talk about, I have heard them to. They just sound like really loud whisperings but I can never make out what is being said. I can only tell that they are coming from your room.” This was shocking to me, not only did my mom admit that it was not my imagination but she also revealed the pinpoint of exactly where the voices where coming from. As I stated before I never could tell exactly where the voices were coming from.

That night I did not sleep well at all. I was scared of what might happen next. Terrified, I slept with the light on, but that did not stop anything from happening. Surprisingly that night I heard nothing, but when I awoke I discovered something unusual. Most of my clothes that was in my closet had been thrown out on the floor. Some where even knotted up so tightly that they practically tore when I tried to unknot it. And the really strange part was that even my clothes in the dirty hamper had been tied in a knot while my mom’s clothes were left untouched. In other instances, appliances would malfunction for no apparent reason. My VCR only recorded static and the answering machine stopped recording messages for no apparent reason. We tried to get both these things fixed but no one found anything wrong with them. In other cases appliances would turn on by themselves. Imagine trying to get some sleep and then hearing the blender turn on by itself only to find out upon inspection that it was not even plugged in.

What the hell could be causing all this? I decided to investigate. I researched paranormal phenomena online and came across poltergeist. I was surprised to learn that I had the perfect conditions for poltergeist phenomena. I was a young teen girl in turmoil, and most of the activity would act up when I was really mad or frustrated. I now had an answer but no real way of stopping this. Although my mom acknowledged that weird stuff was happening around the house, she refused to believe it was a poltergeist. She would often downplay paranormal events. Like for instance once when we came home late at night and all the lights were turned on (when I personally saw her make sure all the lights were turned off before we left) she just shrugged it off and acted as if nothing strange was happening.

As time passed, the anger I had for my mother increased. It was slowly building up inside of me until one day I was sure it was going to explode. That day came on my 15th birthday. Me and my mother had gotten into a nasty argument about something real petty. I can’t remember what it was, but our tensions were high. I decided I was not going to put up with her anymore and I left the house. My mother who refused to believe in poltergeist now became a believer after this night.

This is what happened after I left. My mom was downstairs in the basement doing laundry. No one was home, but yet my mother heard the distinct sound of someone open the front door, walk inside go into my room and turn on the radio. Thinking it was just me she went on doing the laundry. Just then the volume to the radio increased about 10 times louder. My mom, who was pissed off with me already, saw this as yet another argument to start with me. She marched upstairs and into my room, (The radio was still on at this point) but when she opened my bedroom door she was surprised to discover I was not home. Even more startling was the fact that the whole house was silent now. She went inside my room and looked at the radio, but it was turned off. Perplexed my mother went back down to finish the laundry. About 5 minutes passed when my mother heard what sounded like someone dragging furniture across the living room floor. This time my mom was scared. She made her way up to the main floor and looked around the house. Nothing was misplaced, but it was eerily quite. Something was amiss but my mom could not put her finger on it. The ominous feeling of dread engulfed the house. By this time my mom was shaking, she was so scared, but she tried to talk herself out of being scared. She even proclaimed out loud “Nothing bad is going to happen to me because I don’t believe in ghosts.”

Less than a second after she said this the radio came on full blast. But this time it was not just my radio that turned on, it was all 3 radios we owned. My mom could not talk her way out of being scared this time, so she left the house with all three radios on.

When I came home later on that night, I was surprised to discover my next door neighbor outside waiting for someone to come home. “Don’t go in.” She said. “Someone is inside the house, I already called the cops.” “What happened?” I asked. She then went on to tell me that she saw my mom abruptly leave the house earlier and new no one was home because she had also seen me leave, but she heard the most horrific screams coming from my house. It was a man and a woman arguing pretty badly. They both kept screaming and things were heard being tossed around the house. My neighbor thought someone had broken in, so she called the cops.

The cops arrived about two minutes later and questioned me. I told them that since I had left and my neighbor saw my mom leave earlier no one was supposed to be home. They went in to investigate but found no one home. Although my mom’s bedroom looked as if it had been ransacked pretty badly. Clothes, jewelry and her other belongings were thrown across the room. My mother arrived shortly and the cops explained to her what had happened. “Pack your stuff, were leaving” She said.

We spent the night at my grandmother’s house. My grandmother who was a devout catholic never really approved of my mother’s lifestyle so it was a rare treat to see her. Although my grandmother and mother did not have the best relationship, my grandmother did not turn her back on us.

The next morning my mother told me that I was better off living with my grandmother and that she would send my stuff over the next day. I believe she was too scared to have me live with her, but I felt betrayed and abandoned. Right away my grandmother made me feel at peace and in the end I believe living with my grandmother was the perfect thing for me. Her house was less stressful and all the inner turmoil I had while living with my mom had subsided. My mom ended up selling our house and moving into some apartments close to my grandmother. Our relationship improved somewhat but we both decided it was best not to live with each other. Otherwise both our tensions and problems would come back, along with the poltergeist activity we both were so happy to see go.