Today the psychologist recommended my Middle Son switch over to Abilify from his Clonidine ER. She wants his dopamine running. She gave me a rule of thumb: if I get one violent incident per month from him then I need to make the change. She agrees with me on removing milk from his diet, she says I am the second parent in as many days to notice a sort of possession upon the reintroduction of milk in a child like him.
During the session my Oldest Child gave us a rundown of exactly what has happened up to this point with the fourth grade bully on the bus. It seems it started out innocently enough, with tickle chases. But Middle Child does not like to be touched without consent, and to him it would have seemed a torture. So he got some revenge. He hit this big fifth grader hard enough to make him cry, so now this big kid is pretty riled up over the embarrassment and trying to ambush Middle Child every chance he gets. Which explains why he threw my son into the bushes.
I think I have the boys convinced that they need to make a peace offering of cookies. I just hope it works, because although I want my son to be happy, I don´t want to move him over the antipsychotic class of meds.
threekidsandi 
I’d like to get mine off the antipsychotic he’s been on for 16 years. Hope the Abilify works well for you.
I hope I don´t have to start it!
Good luck.
Thanks!
Hey there, new follower =)
My 8 year old is currently on Clonidine and has been for about 5 months. We switched him from Abilify because I felt like his anger was escalating rather quickly (he was starting to put his hands on me and his baby sister.) We’ve gone through so many meds (anti-psychotics, bi-polar, ADHD) for 4 years. Some days I still feel like we’re not done, but I do believe the Clonidine is working for him. If you don’t mind me asking, how old is your middle son? I’ve read that age plays a role in what medications work in different stages of their lives.
Anyway, sorry for the novel. I did read through some of your other posts, and I feel like we have a lot in common. Feel free to follow me =)
~KitKat
Hey, drop me a novel whenever you like, I prefer novels to one liners, seriously. Thanks for following! My son is now 6. He started regular Clonidine in the first few months of being 5, after having some good months on Tenex before it stopped working for him. He got on Clonidine ER about six months into Clonidine and after a brief interlude with the Clonidine ER patch (never use this if you can help it) due to insurance troubles he is back on the ER pill. I love it, really love it. I am trying to do all I can to keep him on it and not take the anti-psychotic leap. Did you ever try a diet change? I am astounded by the no dairy improvements. The psychologist claims Abilify will give him more focus and up his dopamine but this Clonidine gives him that delay between impulse and action- so he can make a choice. I don´t want to lose that…
When my son was first diagnosed, I did everything I could to avoid medications. I took out gluten, I quit dairy, I tried fish oil pills. None of it worked with him. I’m not sure if we ever tried Tenex, but it sounds familiar.
Yeah, I tried to avoid it, too. But after I got him on it, I was kicking myself. Because his quality of life improved so much so immediately. He was far happier to not be in trouble every minute.