In the fall of 2009, Amy S.F. Lutz and her hus­band, Andy, strug­gled with one of the worst deci­sions any par­ent could pos­si­bly face: whether they could safe­ly keep their autis­tic ten-year-old son, Jon­ah, at home any longer. Count­less behav­ior strate­gies, mul­ti­ple med­ica­tion tri­als, and a ten-month hos­pi­tal­iza­tion all failed to con­trol his vio­lent rages. Des­per­ate to stop the attacks that left them emo­tion­al­ly crushed and phys­i­cal­ly bat­tered, Amy and Andy decid­ed to try the pro­ce­dure that has been called ​“the most con­tro­ver­sial treat­ment in med­i­cine”: elec­tro­con­vul­sive ther­a­py (ECT).

Each Day I Like It Bet­ter includes a sur­vey of the most recent ECT research as well as self-con­tained chap­ters recount­ing the ECT jour­neys of six oth­er fam­i­lies, but it is ulti­mate­ly the sto­ry of Jon­ah’s pro­found trans­for­ma­tion: the boy who once broke his teacher’s nose is now prepar­ing for his bar mitz­vah. This book will be of inter­est not only to those touched by autism, but for all those invest­ed in the psy­chi­atric sta­bi­liza­tion of debil­i­tat­ing illness.