I know exactly how hard it is to advocate for yourself when you are ill and on medications, because I and my bi-polar partner have both had to do it, and I have watched countless others do it as well. You have my sympathies.

The headline is yellow journalism. The story is worthwhile even though the author does not make clear that it was taking the wrong medication that made her son suffer. Some questions I have:

1. Not clear whether the son's downturn was a direct result of medication or as the doctor suggests, something that happens to 15% of the autistic population and the psychotic medication made his symptoms worse.

2. Whether the son took another class of medication as part of his new therapy.

Medication can be a life-saver for people with the right kind of therapy. To write such a biased and rhetorically-charged headline gives people the false impression that all medication causes harm. Medication is not without side effect but they can be life-savers if properly administered under the care of a good doctor. I know, because it saved my life when I needed it most.

Just because you would like to question the veracity of the article itself -- which is by the way one person's story and not a piece of investigative reporting -- does not mean the headline is inaccurate. The author is writing as her son's mother. She makes no claims of medical expertise.

Headlines are supposed to reflect the story they head and not the sensitivities of all possible readers. As a matter of fact, it is Journalism 101 that the first function of a headline is to grab the reader's attention.

DonaQuixote puts it very well: the lesson here is not to be panicked or bullied into any decision with consequences as serious as the decision whether/how to medicate for something like this. Medical emergencies seem so urgent ('cause they are urgent, I guess) that it might not feel like you have the time to seek a second opinion or even sit and think about an option.

Meds can be a blessing or a curse and I believe the most disturbing facet of the current medical climate is the omnipresence of, uh, the evil forces of capitalism.

I'm done failing at "articulate" now. DonaQuixote put it better than I would anyway.

I appreciate your sympathies, but the stress I initially was dealing with does not come under the category of illness. I think if you look in the DSM, you will find that stress is not a diagnosis. I was given the medication for stress and, of all things, high blood pressure (most psych meds raise blood pressure, and at the time I only took the doctor's advice. I had no idea that I had been improperly prescribed.

It was the prescribed medication that made me ill. After the medication was prescribed, everytime I complained of increasing depression and suicidal thoughts (called suicidal ideation), the doctor increased the dosage of my medication -- which caused panic attacks among other things. A mild acrophobia became so bad that I literally had to crawl up the library steps to the third floor in order to do research. If I had tried to stand, I felt I would have passed out.

This was not some undiagnosed bipolar disorder manifesting itself suddenly in me at the age of 48. This was not some teenaged onset of schizophrenia. It was the meds.

To paraphrase the author of the article "Psych Meds Drove Me Crazy." I am sorry people don't like me saying that, but it reflects exactly my experience.

Maybe those who follow such stories will recall that SSRIs, which had been prescribed to some children, were finally deemed to have a side effect of suicidal ideation. Later on, there began to be questions about these same drugs causing suicidal ideation in teenagers. Why does it seem so strange that they might also cause suicidal ideation in some adults?

Children, teenagers, adults = Human beings.

By all means, speak your truth! Hearing stories like yours helps all of us to remember that the folks in the white coats are just as human and fallible and potentially corruptible as the rest of us. That makes us all more informed, more careful, and more questioning consumers. More power to ya'. Just because I also know stories that go the other way, where fear of medications is what caused the tragedy, doesn't mean that your story is not also extremely important.

I want to assure you that I do understand the importance of proper medication and reasonable med compliance for people who are Bipolar. After Paxil, I had many opportunities to meet people whom I knew to be Bipolar and to see their frustrations and struggles. I suspect people who are Bipolar have even more problems getting medical professionals to listen to them. You and others are the expert there.

See Elle Dee mentions the profit motive as part of the problem. I know there are good doctors and other medical professionals who only have the best interests of the mentally ill at heart, but I cannot help but suspect that even the best of them are sometimes influenced by the marketing and the free samples that they are given to try on their patients.

Another serious problem is coordinating professionals who provide for people's physical health with professionals who provide for people's mental health. There really needs to be a team approach.

When I finally got a psychologist who was working with my psychiatric nurse practioner who was also consulting with my internist, they began to see me as a whole person. When they finally compared notes they decided that I should taper off my meds and that some of my previous diagnoses were bogus. One sure indicator that something may be amiss is when psychiatrists and psychologists keep changing their diagnoses. It often means that they are making symptoms fit the person rather that actually looking at the whole person.

For instance, I kept telling people over and over that my down periods were much worse in the winter. I was on disability and wanted financial assistance to buy a full spectrum light box to treat my Seasonal Affective Disorder. They cost about $300 - $400 for a big one. I knew I needed a big one. Medicaid would not pay. They were willing to pay that much every single month for medications but to reimburse for a light box was too out of the box for them. A light box would have been a one shot deal.

Fortunately, I was later able to afford the light box myself and it has done me a world of good. Another thing that has helped is a supplement called 5-HTP. However, I discovered I cannot take SAM-e. It has a similar effect upon me as SSRIs.

Also, several studies have indicated that consistent exercise is as effective for mild depression as drugs like Paxil. Exercise is free! Nobody makes a profit off of exercise.

I don't want to sound like no drugs is the only way to go. I want to tell what has made a difference for me. Maybe this discussion will be of help to others.