It is varied by location, income, parenting style, school pressure, doctor nature, arrggg....our poor kids. I think we are lucky in that Q has up until the lamictal incident, been prescribed all of his medications by a neurologist (with a child who is autistic) and his pediatrician working together. When I make a pediatrician. appointment the scheduler always says I can't have less than a 45 minute appointment. I spend at least an hour in every single appointment. Now we have added this psychiatrist, and she does seem good, I get that they are worried about the medications because of the high doses. But here we go.... the first thing we try, terrible reaction and the second, seizures plus not sure it is doing anything worth anything...but I do in my gut believe that part of that is that a couple of medications are not right for him anymore and need to be out...(prozac, benadryl)
But I have seen parents pressured to have medications, and their kids stop eating and growing and no matter the medication they are not well, and they are not aggressive but have attention issues and school begs them to try medications. I dont think it is always because they dont want to do the work, but I have heard them, they really believe that the child would be happier and be able to learn more. Sometimes they are right. Other times they dont get the big picture.
There was a boy in the outpatient autism program Q was in who bit his baby siblings ear off. Actually took a chunk off. They put him on Risperdone and it was a miracle. This kid was not only not aggressive but started using PECS and doing so much better.
DJ, I know what you mean. I can say this about autism (MHO). Many of us KNEW we were dealing with high functioning autism and Aspergers for years and years. These kids got labels like troubled at best, brats/rude/etc. at worst...and diagnosis. of childhood schizophrenia, adhd+odd+anxiety+ + + and I always wondered?....is it realistic to think that tons of kids kids have MANY things wrong, or have one thing with these symptoms? Plus if you add the high interest area where the child speaks about their topic with no clue of another person's absolute boredom with the topic, the vocal characteristics that you become really good at recognizing after a while, the inability to play/interact WITh others in novel ways...not the rote back and forth stuff like chase games and play fights, the collecting so many of them do, the sensory issues, and other things...though each child has a different profile, it does really add up. Really, in my opinion.... they were there, but it was under-diagnosed. (I suspect that is true as you say for the adult mental health things too, especially schizophrenia, and bi-polar--when it is truly that)
Now we have "autism specialists" who are wonderful, but it is frustrating that there were a bunch of us out there early on (20 years ago). The autism specialists make all the things we used to fight for, legit. I have met many kids who were misdiagnosed as another disorder, and with the correct interventions, they did so much better. I admit, that may speak to the interventions being appropriate for lots of diagnosis though. There are EBD programs that embrace Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) methods and the kids do very well. Doesn't tend to work the other way around. I think kids with emotional and behavioral/mental health diagnoses have their sensory needs, their language processing issues etc. under treated because the focus is mostly on the behaviors and getting rid of them. I hear you, it is true that people grab on to a hot diagnosis and go to it. But in fact, people are still reporting that kids are being missed-re: autism, and to me re: any appropriate diagnosis, in huge numbers. Now that the genetic markers are being identified and more research is being made into the causes and how it is inherited, it may help us sort through this better. There are several illnesses and genetic diagnosis that have autism symptoms and then autism is only beneficial as a label in terms of learning style and coping...but the overriding diagnosis still needs to be treated. It could be true for Q though since he has a genetic sibling with very similar behaviors (the autism ones) it is really suspected he would have had autism even without the brain injury. Doesn't matter much, he is who he is.
My answer to the medication. question: a wimpy one. It all depends. I am not for throwing medications one after the other on a child. Q never never has more than one medication touched at a time unless it is a life threatening, illness situation. I don't let therapies change when medications are being started and I dont let medications change if school or therapies are changing. I think there are kids who have NO BUSINESS being on medications. and I agree it is systemic. Q has been on antibiotics not more than 4 times in his life. I now found out that even antacids are on the list of medications he can't have...not all but some. uggg, it is a scary topic and I would love him to be off any kind of medication. Wish that for him desperately but it is not going to be so for him. At least not in the real world.