My daughter is 7. High functioning. Her temper is unreal, and mood swings like Jeckle and Hyde. She, like others, keeps it all in at school. But when she gets home...WATCH OUT!!!. It is awlfull. She is on the meds Rispardol, Novatorazidone, and Dexaderm.(sp for all???) She is driving us insane. My husband and I have a very good sence of humor but.....man. We are at ourwhits end. I also have a 12 year old son with touretts , but he is a piece of cake compared to her. Dont worrie we all LOVE her it is just that I am SURE that you all know what this is like. She doesnt talk in a quiet voice, it is constant yelling, she rags on her step fater so bad, then she will hug him and say how much she loves him. When she gets mad, she tells us that she is going to kill us, wants us to leave, hates us, doesent have to do what we say.....
This happens EVERYDAY. Please HELP!!!!!!

Thanks for letting me vent.

Has she always been this way, or could her behavior be a side-effect of one of the medications? My son had a drastic personality change soon after we started him on Strattera; he was telling his teacher and Principal that he hated them, he was going to blow the school up, he would rather DIE than have to come to school, etc. They actually sent him home one day telling me to take him to an emergency mental health center! Worst 2 months ever. Once the med. was out of his system (2-3 weeks after stopping) he was back to his usual self, and the strange thing is he barely remembers anything from that period. Just a thought. BTW, what is her diagnosis? My son is ADHD and mild PDD-NOS.

THANK YOU for replying.
Her diagnosis is Asbergs (sp?) She has been on the meds for just over a year now. We have tried with the help of her physcoligest to lower the dosages but to no avail. Her quality of life without them was totally miserable. Our main problem hear at home is her lack of understanding of rules. We (as parents) are meer tools for her existance. Her concept of our feelings is almost non existant. We are exhausted and at our whits end.

Hi! I don't know how much help I will be but here goes. It sounds to me like your daughter is incredibly intellegent. She knows exactly what buttons to push to drive you and your husband crazy! My son is the same way. A year ago I did not think I would make it. By the end of every day, I had a migraine and was completely not looking forward to the next day. I hated getting up in the morning because I knew his behavior was just going to start all over again. I finally said enough is enough. I just started to completely ignore him. No matter what. He would punch me, throw things at me (with incredible accuracy), scream my name, tap me, basically anything to get my attention. After about two hours of this, I finally looked at him and told him I did not like him any more. (I know this sounds harsh, but I told you, I was hopeless) He went screaming into the other room. My son has a very difficult time with speech but he said very clearly " Mommy no love me". I cried. Then, I went in to the other room and told him that I loved him very much, but Mommy just doesn't like you when you are like this. It didn't completely stop his behavior, and sometimes I have to do this again, but, it really helped him realize what he was doing was not going to work on me anymore. He still finds new buttons to push. It is a work in progress. One question, have you ever tried her on a different medication? Maybe the meds she is on now just doesn't effect her anymore.

[This message has been edited by Joanne (edited 06-11-2003).]

This is interesting to me, as I also have a boy on the Spectrum (17)with a PDD diagnosis and Tourette's and a girl 11, who sounds much like your daughter. REALLY difficult. There has been some suggestion that she could also be bi-polar, which I believe, since there is a family history (paternal grandmother and uncle) of this.

She is on Zoloft (since late August, nothing ever before that) which helped only a little and Tenex, which has actually helped the aggressive behaviors a lot, although she is still impulsive about danger.

My son is on Geodon, was on Risperdal, but did gain a LOT of weight.



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Judith

Strattera, meant to comment that our pediatrician (he doesn't prescribe the meds, neurologist does) suggested he had seen good results with Straterra instead of Zoloft and Tenex, and was encourging me to aske the neuro about switching my daughter.

May have to rethink this after reading Joanne's experience.

Hi I just wanted to say my 10 year old son is the same he has aspergers is high functioning and most of the time hates my guts. You have to be overly firm and strict about what is acceptable its very hard and stressfull but I must say you have been given some very good advice which helps us all. My son isnt on any prescribed medication and his behaviour has been like this for quite a while now. I find that after the 2000th time I tell him not do do something and explain why it sinks in(in other words hang in there) you sound like you have your hands full and you are doing a great job, take care.

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