If my son wasn't being aggressive and hurting himself and others I wouldn't put him on anything, but that's an ideal world and with an ideal situation. My son is autistic and would not sleep without the medication he takes at night nor would he be able to concentrate at school. He would be having seizures galore and God knows how bad the brain damage would be from uncontrolled seizing. It breaks my heart that we have to give him medication, but I know firsthand how much of a difference they can make in a person's life once you've found the right ones.

It sounds like your son too needs his medication to help him sleep well and to get through the days Mrs. Bear, I really understand the internal conflict about it and hope that someday my son can go without medications, my cousin outgrew seizures and so maybe my son will as well, just after puberty. I know they like you to try no medication, weaning you off it if you don't see any seizures for two years, we almost made it that far but he had two seizures last year and one this year, so we've got to wait a little longer before trying to get him off the lamictal he takes for controlling them.

I feel fortunate too to have a great team of dr's to help me with my son. I don't know that this family had the same kind of support that you and I have for our sons, but they surely did sound like they were abusing the drug with their kids. I agree it is criminal. But like you said, there really isn't a magic pill that will make our kids "normal" and I have accepted that he will always be autistic, yet I have hope for him to get off medication when he's older because the first psychiatrist told us that it IS possible he can learn coping skills and not need anything anymore once he gets around twelve or so.