The Doctors' Roles

Obviously for many years, the doctors treated J for things he did not have. Before he moved in with me, he was still going to the ADD Clinic for his monthly prescriptions. I went with him once. The appointment went a little like this...

-How are you doing J?
-Good. How are you?
-Here's your prescriptions.

We were in the waiting room longer than we were in the doctor's office! When he moved in with me (and out of state), we had to go through an intake process. This consisted of a semi-structured interview in which I had to interject because as we all know, an Aspie says the bare minimum. It was pretty pointless as that guy just wanted J to come back for some "talk" therapy, just to get thoughts out. The problem with that is talk therapy is not in J's interest and he would rather use the internet as an outlet, where he could be in the comfort and security of his own home.

After the intake process was over, we were assigned to a nurse practitioner who could prescribe medications. She automatically assumed that what the previous doctors diagnosed him with was correct and continued him on those medications. We fought tooth and nail every step of the way to open her eyes up to Asperger Syndrome. One time while J was talking and trying to describe something, I saw her look up AS in her little cheat book. Some listener! I am not an expert but in my college studies of psychology, she broke every rule. Heck, she couldn't even give J her attention for half an hour.

Finally, she spoke with the doctors of the practice and they all agreed that he had AS. I guess they just figured if we did all of this research, we must know what we were talking about. I told her countless information and what I dug up with talking to J and his mom, etc. It may not have been thoroughly tested, but it was a diagnosis... FINALLY!

This was not the end of it though. As time went on, she was using J as a guinea pig with his medications. She would give him samples of medications like Seroquel. Since J can be the center of attention at sci-fi and comic book conventions, she saw that as the ups of Bipolar Disorder and the depression as the downs. She pushed Seroquel on us but I would not let J take anything that I did not research online. The nurse told us it should help J sleep. Well, the internet said it treats schizophrenia and bipolar. I presented this information to J and he was done. His faith in doctors and the medications they prescribed was finished.

The next step is something J nor I would ever suggest as it is a risky and dangerous move. J quit taking his medications cold turkey. This was against my advisement since I knew it had the potential to be dangerous. However, I put him on a multi-vitamin and once he was "detoxed" he was doing so much better.

I cannot claim that it was all the medication making him a "nutcase". He was in a bad marriage for years and that put him into a depression. All of this was happening as he became more comfortable as a divorced man. I liken it to this: For all of his life he was put in a box. The people surrounding him kept him in there and he just re-enforced the walls for years and years. When he moved in with me, I began work to break down those walls. He still has the foundation of that but we are trying to make it into a structure better equipped for our society.