An important side story here is the tremendous value of the internet. The night the author stayed up reading more and more revealing stuff on the net is so familiar to me. I feel like that exact scenario has happened to me many times--all for important issues relating to health or parenting or schooling.

I too have written in desperation to health experts, famous authors, and other important people (Dr. Brazelton comes to mind) and was almost always surprised to find a personal response in the morning. I think they could sense my desperation from miles away.

When I bring up information that I got on the internet to my doctor or some others, they almost always dismiss the net as unreliable for factual information. Absurd. These people know that I'm intelligent and discerning and can certainly tell the difference b/t the AMA's website and "Dr. Cookie's blog."

Thank goodness for the net, for the facts and for the community spirit!

Too many letter writers sound just a little too trusting of the psychiatric profession. I understand that this comes from painful experience; if they stop taking their meds (as bipolars are apt to do), it can lead to disastrous consequences.

But my experience is that there are too many psychiatrists (and family doctors!) who are just too quick to prescribe psychotropic meds too blindly. I have seen unbelievable abuses of drugs -- for example, of a seven-year-old boy, brought to "before-care" at his school at 7 in the morning and picked up from aftercare at 6:30 at night, taking Geodon! The kid, from what I saw, was not bipolar or psychotic -- he was exhausted!

The psychiatrists she saw did not spend more than 15 minutes thinking about her son's problem. They didn't ask enough questions, or look at the results of what they were doing. It's a typical problem in American medicine today. Nobody takes the time to puzzle out atypical problems. Because of that, her son along with everyone in her family went through hell for two years. If she hadn't looked through the Web and found an answer herself, it would still be going on. Or maybe her son would be dead.

There is no reward -- absolutely none -- in the American system of medicine for a doctor to take the time to get it right. To the contrary, the system practically requires him to spend no more than twelve minutes a patient. If you luck out and happen to be among the minority for whom the standard medication easily works, that's great. But if you're not, the results, as this article shows, can be absolutely horrible.

I, too, have been a guinea pig for the psychiatric profession. I sympathize with your son. It is dangerous and demoralizing to try and function in society when your med "cocktail" is causing severe side effects.

I have never been psychotic, only depressed and anxious, but I was put on antipsychotics once. I gained weight, began to sleepwalk, fell asleep in my closet because I couldn't remember how to get back to my bedroom, and lost memory to the point where I could no longer remember my phone number or who did what at work. Another scary side effect was something like intermittent brain shocks (luckily I found plenty of people on the Internet who could explain this sensation to me). Needless to say, the doc thought everything was peachy despite my complaints. I tapered off several meds myself, knowing it was risky but being desperate.

This was the right choice. But I still take medication that works for me. I still have some side effects I'm not happy with, but I've found a doctor who's willing to work with me and doesn't get gung-ho about whatever the drug cowboys have left in samples that morning.

Best of luck to you and your son.

I'm glad that Ms. Bauer loves her autistic child. I love my autistic child as well. But I really hate stories about autism that paint the cutesy "Rainman" version of autistic individuals who are clearly less impaired than most children on the spectrum. Of course, those people are entitled to tell their stories, but it's these comfortable tales of washing dishes precisely, or, as we saw on the news months ago, shooting full-court basketballs; it's these sweet ideas that let those who could fund autism research totally off the hook. And by the way, I’m not advocating any hiding of the truth; just the opposite, for any parent in my position knows that there’s one truth about autism: you don’t want your child to have it. That’s the polite version for people like Ms. Bauer. Here’s what most parents of autistic individuals are saying: it’s devastating. And no, they’re not weak or pessimistic for saying that; they’re merely stating matters clearly. Any parent of an autistic child also knows first-hand that those smiling fables about math whizzes and whimsical eccentricity also allow people to claim that autism just really isn’t all that bad; the start of Bauer’s piece was an anthem to that odd notion. Please understand: I'm not feeling sorry for myself or my autistic child, but who needs conservative stem cell protectors, apathetic legislators or shrugging teachers claiming to have read that my very troubled child is merely, to use words such as Bauer's, "charming," "a little eccentric" and really just has "a wonderfully tilted perspective." Oh, and her phrase about that perspective: "if you're a parent of autism, (it's a perspective) you come quickly to enjoy." Wow, I've spent years as both the parent of an autistic child, as well as a parent around other parents of autistic children -- we're all scratching our heads over that one. I expect some parents of neuro-typical children to read this and find my views to be both rash and over-reactive, just as I know that parents in the world of autism will understand exactly what I’m talking about. Except, of course, Ann Bauer.

You are obviously a smart and caring mother, and I was very touched by your story. Your story is an important read for parents/friends of autistics.