Heartfelt and brainfelt thanks to those that have shared their experiences and realities honestly here.
I hear you, we hear you. Instead of quoting inserts and answering my POV to them...
I believe this is a more efficient way.
I'm 55, live in California, my parents have passed on.
They were both smoking drinking professionals throughout my and my older siblings lives, and we were firmly middle class until the 90's when my father escalated to high middle class with his manufacturing and consulting. Thats just some framework and really bears little to the question of do's and don'ts for parents of 'special' children. That's society's name, special, I believe all children, all people are special.
There is no such thing as Autism or any other 'condition' without an MD diagnosis. It is a man made ballon with no factual basis, and the term 'spectrum' is for the convenience of the doctors, corporations.
So if a inherently flawed human doctor says you have some man-named condition, you have the diagnosis from a fellow man or woman who has the credentials to make the claim. Sounds like faith to me.
This qualified person says this and other opinions may say different.
When I was 6 in 1973 hyperactivity was a diagnosis, before OCD made a new umbrella for independent brains, and I was so diagnosed. Mom and dad took to the doctors opinion and I took the drug Ritual (tm) as prescribed by a physician.
I wont say the real name here.
No children of my own, so I can share this opinion- without the state declaration that I'm an unfit parent- do not give children any (psychotropic) pharmacy unless in an ER situation.
The more lies I told when I was young the more lies seem toxic today. Maybe thats just getting older and wiser.