My son was having some of the same issues at school when he was 5, not so aggressive but he would have tantrums at school and A LOT of hysterical crying. I was called down to his school constantly because they couldn't calm him down. He tends to get a little pushy and yells at the top of his lungs and he refuses to let the teacher continue teaching. This was before he was on any medication. He is now 6 and his first year of school was tough. This school year I can't say has gotten better because even though he has a little bit better ontrol on the tantrums he having issues staying focused still. He is also on Tenex now and even though I've seen improvement in some areas, he has become more resistant to following directions and things like that. His teachers are not familiar at all with ADHD and don't seem to really want to help so that is a huge frustration. My son was diagnosed almost about a year ago with ADHD and he also has TICS. I'm sorry to say I don't have much advice seeing that I'm still learning different techniques to try but I can say you're not alone. My son has really bad days sometimes, even weeks, but there are days where things will get better.

Quote

Did your son have a terrible time getting adjusted to the Tenex. Noah has been on this for 5 days and all he has done is cry uncontrollably, moan, groan and/or scream. This behavior was not present before the Tenex. Did your son experience this too? If so, how long did it take for h im to get adjusted. thank you for replying to my post. It's nice to know people care. :)

Quote

My son has been on Tenex for almost a year now. I can't say he did any of those things while on the Tenex because he did them before we started him on the medication. Actually now that I think about it, he did start having crying fits and things like that more often than before. I actually had his psychiatrist take him off the medication to see if that was what was making it worse. He was off of the medication for about 2 to 3 months but they put him on Strattera during that time period. I noticed a little bit of a difference once he was off of the medication but he started being less focused so we put him back on the Tenex also and he has been ok. He has been back on it for 6 months. The crying fits have gotten a lot better, they haven't stopped just gotten better and mild. We are still in the process of finding the right medication for him though. While in the beginning I noticed a little improvement it seems now the medication is not doing much.

Quote

Hi--my son has been taking Intuniv, which is an extended release packaging of guanfacine, the same drug that's in Tenex, for about a year and a half. We started him on 1 mg, then went up to 2, and have been at 3 for a year. It took him a good month, at least, to adjust to each dose. When he first started on the 3 mg, he fell asleep every time he sat still for more than a couple minutes, no matter where he was. He was emotional, too--I think his system was just overwhelmed. Stimulant meds gave him tics and made him agressive/angry/anxious/depressed--not an option!!!

Even now, after a year, if his sleep schedule is off for more than a night or so, or if he's overstimulated because of excitement (like around a holiday) or nervousness (like when school started), or if he's about to hit a growth spurt, the hyperactivity/exhaustion merry go round can be dizzying. He'll come home from school, fall asleep on the couch (and NO amount of effort could either keep him awake or wake him up once he's asleep), then get up and be crazy, then crash as soon as his head hits the pillow. But life on Intuniv is 1000x better than life off Intuniv.

You know your kid best--if you think it's too much for him, talk to his doctor. But unfortunately, for so many ADHDers, it's a question of finding what offers the largest portion of good--nothing is going to make everything better...Good luck!

Quote

I really appreciate you two! Your words have been encouraging and enlightening. We did decide to take him off of the Tenex. He is back to his happy, hyperexcitable, somewhat aggressive, impulsive self. I think Eric and I just couldn't handle what it was doing to Noah. He was miserable and so were we. We actually began to reinforce the bad behaviors all over again by giving him attention everytime he screamed, whined or cried. Now we have to ignore everything all over again. i spoke to his physician yesterday and we are taking a break from medicines right now because we are beginning to exhaust all of our resources. Although Noah can't be in classroom for any instruction time right now his teacher says she would prefer him in this state of mind than the other. We are doing many vitamins, herbal supplements and acupuncture right now to help. It takes a lot of patience to handle him but I have to hope things will eventually get better.

Quote