In fairness to the medical profession, its really hard to diagnose a person who is non verbal and violent.
If they can't answer questions about symptoms, its easy to assume that they are out of their mind crazy and give them antipsychotics.
In the tragic case of Alex Spourdalakis, a teenager was stripped naked, and kept in 4 point restraints for 19 days in the emergency room with no diagnosis. It was later learned, through a diagnostic colonoscopy, that his gut was riddled with abscesses. He was in AGONY. He was non verbal and had no way to express pain other than violence and self injurious behaviors. The hospital refused his mothers request for a colonoscopy and instead administered antispsychotics. A few months later, his mother and godmother allegedly committed murder / attempted suicide because they had no support. It is incomprehensible to me, and I will never stop telling people Alex's story.
When I told our MD about Alex, she nearly cried. And she promised to back us up if ever we needed to do inpatient with Dominic and he couldn't verbalize his symptoms
Our kids are riddled with illness. And because they are non verbal and cannot explain what they feel, that physical pain is written off as mental illness and they are given antipsychotics. This is unacceptable and must change.
The way we change it is one conversation with one doctor at a time. Have you spoken to yours?
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