Why We Decided to Medicate

I often hear people talk about how it's horrible to medicate children, mostly it's uneducated opinions like "who would pump their child full of chemicals?" or they talk about pharmaceutical companies pushing drugs for children to make a profit. I confess many moons ago I was one of those uneducated and judgmental parents. I swore I would never do such a thing to my child and that diet and exercise where severely underrated.

Then Autism hit! At first it wasn't too bad and nothing I couldn't handle Gracie would meltdown but I would hold her and after a little while the meltdown would end. Toddler meltdowns weren't so bad and sometimes she could even be confined to her bedroom for the duration. The meltdowns were easy to predict and as long as we stayed on routine she was happy.




But as Gracie got older her meltdowns became more intense. More unpredictable, I never knew what would set her off or how long the meltdown would last. At one point she was melting down for 4 to 6 hours a day, and being sent home from school 2 to 3 days a week for uncontrollable meltdowns.

I began to hate my life, as soon as I got up in the mornings I had dread in the pit of my soul about when she was going to start screaming (the screaming would most often start about 2 to 5 am). My husband and I were on edge and snapping at each other. The most heart breaking thing of as was that Gracie was miserable. My soul ached for her, my sweet little girl who couldn't communicate with me was in agnoy and I didn't know why.

Finally after much soul searching we decided to put her on Rispidal an anti psychotic. We started out with the smallest dose and I was amazed that the nest day we only had two meltdowns. Within a week we were brearly having any meltdowns at all. But most of all I got my little girl back. Gracie is once again her happy, giggly, stimmy self.