Your post compelled me to join this forum. My son was also put on abilify. It is used "off-label" for ADD. After 30-45 minutes of taking his abilify dose each day, my son would fly into such rages and tantrums, it was like he was possessed. AFter less than 1 week, I called the doctor and told him I refused to ever give this to him again. Vyvanse also left my son agitated especially in the early evening. This year my son is off both medications, but remains on a low dose of prozac. His schoolwork is still not great, but the rages all but disappeared. I would check with the prescribing doctor and relate these symptoms to him/her. My son is still argumentative, and almost always says "no" when I ask to him to do something. If I don't respond, he will usually just go and do it. Sometimes I think they just want to assert themselves and sometimes they just want you to argue you with them about "why" they need to do it. If my son doesn't do what I've asked him, I calmly tell him there will be consequences and a time limit to do what he was told and then walk away. It doesn't work every time, but sure beats those long drawn-out battles over simple requests.

Quote

Dear Teen parent, We had a bad experience with Abilify too. We met with a Neurologist at Stanford University who strongly suggested a link between Abilify and Seizures as well as behavioral acting out. Each child and teen's brain is different, and will react to medications differently, however, he might be having a reaction to the Abilify. If he can maintain his actions at school and is only defiant at home, then it might not be a medication issue, but a teenager trying to push the boundaries. A behavioral counselor might be helpful. I also reccommend Dr. Greene's book the Explosive Child to read. Good luck.

Quote

My son (14) doesn't take abilityf and while prescribed Vyvance, he doesn't want to take it now because he says it upset his stomach. Eating protein in the morning before school should counteract, but he doesn't seem to get it. His behavior has been totally argumentative, arguing for the sake or arguing, back talking or being disrespectful and flat out admist he's not motivated for school. While some of these problems are probably ADHD related to some point, I think most of their angst is being a teenager in today's world. He sees what others have and he doesn't and feels it isn't fair. He gets rewards when behavior and grades are good, but it's never enough. Someone recommended Crucial Confrontations and Crucial Conversations. I check review on the first one, and it seems like it might be a good resource so am anxious to read. I find that sitting down for a heart to heart talk works well, especially when he's in a receptive mood. Since the motivation is not back on track and argumetative phase as worsened, am going to try leeting him work out schedule for getting up and going to school, handling emotions when he's out of sorts and choosing a physical outlet (which I think teenagers need to release all their pent up energy) and coming up with a new behavorial plan and new habit of dealing with day to day pressures.

Quote

Quote:

justme972 said: My 15 yr old son was dx adhd about a year ago and he is on a low dosage of Vyvance and we recently added abilify. For the most part, his grades have leveled off (before it was a rollar coaster A to F throughout the year). He also has been tested for an high IQ since kindergarten.

Now that he has been a teen, things have flipped. His ADHD was somewhat unnoticiable at home and somewhat horrible keeping his focus at school. Now, school is going well, he's horrible with his relationships at home. He has been extremely argumentative just to win, verbally abusive, and litterally defiant by stamping his foot and shouting "no, I won't turn off the Xbox". Part of me is wondering who this new kid is because, he had never said "no" and use curse words at me (I've never allowed it when he was younger). He is also very demanding about his little brother tending to his chores and sometimes bullying him.

Tonight, I asked him to turn off the game... he has already been on it for 4 hours and he needed to get ready for school. He had chosen not to eat dinner and he doesn't need to add more tardies to this year. He had thrown a fit like a 5 year old. It was a bit shocked as to the determination he was aiming to win. I don't argue with children or speak to adults who shout at me so I ignored him and he knows that I will not speak to him until he calms down. This took a whole 1 1/2 hours. This is an improvement because last weekend it lasted 3 hours and he was conviced I was a liar and a retarded idiot among other things. This time, I got an apology... but I'm loss for words to converse with him productively.

If he is so "gifted" and able to determine the complexities of the themes and plots of literature in school, why does he resort to such illogical behaviour he knows will have a bad consequence to. He knows he may have to live with his father (I'm divorced for over 10 years) whom he does not know very well.

I don't know if I can handle the stress anymore.

Quote

Our daughter is 14 and it's been hell the last 3 years especially. Everything is open to argue, in her opinion. We've been very clear to her that we will not argue w/ her when we say 'no' to something, but that doesn't stop her from following us around and trying to engage us. We've given consequences for simply not 'dropping it'. The problem we are struggling most with, is that its boiled down to consequences pretty much all of the time--that is the only thing that works. We've tried the 'rewards' program many times, but it doesn't work; only consequences are effective. I can't tell you how awful it is to always be shoveling out consequences all the time; it seems that my husband and I are always punishing her and it's horrible. It's as if the relationship w/ our daughter is solely negative but we are not sure what to do anymore. Anyone else going through this?

Quote

This is the best program I have used to stop bad behavior: http://www.squidoo.com/total-transformation

Quote