INTERVIEWER: Was the decision to put Michaela on medication a difficult one?

MOM: It wasn’t hard for me, but it was definitely difficult for my husband. He didn’t want to really believe that there was anything wrong with her, and certainly didn’t want her on any type of “mind altering medication,” as he put it. So it was more out of fear. I just stayed on it that she needed something and we had to do something to help her beyond what we were already doing with the behavior modification. So he finally agreed to follow my lead, and understood from talking to her doctor that it really was a trial and that the nature of the medication was very fast-acting and quickly eliminated from the body so that we would know within a short time whether it worked or not and it wasn’t something that would be hanging around in her system if it wasn’t something appropriate. And he really couldn’t help but see right away that there was a difference, a positive difference, and that she seemed a happier child because she was more in control of herself.