Euphemia - I have expended a huge amount of energy, over the past year or so, exploring and investigating a better educational model for DS1 than his current mainstream setting, which whilst extremely caring, is often overwhelming for him. I have found somewhere with small classes and a very gentle approach which will encourage him in his interests and talents and help him to come out of his shell, socially. This is all providing I can get the LA to agree to it, of course.
Without medication, the search would have been fruitless because he wouldn't have a hope in Hull of accessing it. I medicate away as much of the pain caused by my HMS as I possibly can - plus I do physio exercises to help prevent the pain and weakness. Without the medication, I can't manage the physio. It's too difficult and leaves me exhausted and in more pain. I view his medication in the same way. It dulls the roar inside his head so he can work at life. The advantage for us is that we see a lot more of the bright, funny boy that he is.
And yes, I do accept that my "little bubble" comment was scathing. Over in SN chat, we were discussing sleep, the other day and I acknowledged that I am very lucky that the boys usually sleep OK. Not well, but OK (we've had a few notable exceptions, recently). If I was to proclaim that my boys' reasonable sleep patterns were down to my awesome parenting and that other people must be doing something wrong for their children to be awake half the night, then others could quite rightly accuse me of being in a little bubble because I would be displaying an incredible lack of empathy and understanding.