By

Sara Luterman , Barbara Rodriguez

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JJ Hanley can still remember the pediatrician’s words.

It was the early ’90s, and the mother of two in suburban Chicago had begun to worry that her toddler-age son, Tim, was showing language delays and other behaviors that didn’t align with his older brother’s development. Hanley turned to her son’s doctor, who declared: “There’s nothing wrong with him. What’s wrong with him is you.”

The pediatrician, according to Hanley, said she was overthinking her observations.

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“I’ll never forget it,” Hanley said. “It was point blank, ‘You’re overbearing and neurotic.’”

Hanley later got a second opinion, which led to her son’s autism diagnosis and related car

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