Help! My doctor's not listening to me

CNN has a series of continuing stories about patients taking control over their own medical care, and the care of people close to them. This snippet caught our attention.

When Shelly's son, Travis, started to misbehave in first grade, her pediatrician diagnosed attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder and prescribed stimulant drugs.

After months on the drugs and several dosage changes, the medications didn't help, says Shelly, who asked that her last name not be used.

Shelly took Travis to another pediatrician, then another and another.

In all, she says, eight doctors prescribed stimulants such as Ritalin -- often increasing the dosage -- even though she explained they hadn't worked before.

"They just kept saying, 'You need to give it time,' " Shelly says. "But he was so jacked up on drugs he couldn't sleep at night. We thought, 'These drugs aren't working, so why do they keep increasing the dosage?' "

Finally, after three years of trying stimulants to treat ADHD, a psychologist diagnosed in Travis a high-functioning form of autism. At 9, Travis stopped the ADHD drugs and started therapy for autistic children.

His behavior improved, his grades went up, and now at 14, his mother says, he's a "model student."

"I cringe and cry when I think back on the three years wasted knocking on doors," she says.

This is a hard won victory, even though we are not thrilled by some of the issues related to the treatment of autism. We are glad to have more people standing up for themselves.

Special Note: Empowered Patient, a regular feature from CNN Medical News correspondent Elizabeth Cohen, helps put you in the driver's seat when it comes to health care.