Chlonodine

Yesterday Annie got mad at Cindy, and jetted up the ladder to the top bunk where Cindy was making her bed, intending to physically beat her up. A few days ago, Annie was mad at Cindy before school, and waited until they got outside to head to school, and ran up and shoved her as hard as she could.

There have been a few times when Annie has gotten physically aggressive: she slammed a classmate's head in the door of the cafeteria because she wanted to be first in line and he already was. When she was younger she was real bad about biting and pulling hair (younger as in 3.) But that's about it. Mostly she's had her rages and I've been more worried about her inflicting harm to herself rather than to others.

Yesterday my mom was able to get things under control and bring Annie out of her rage by talking quietly and asking Annie questions so she had to talk too. (This is a new thing we've discovered that seems to be working "knock on wood".) But I don't know why all of a sudden Annie seems more physically aggressive. She is showing her anger towards others more rather than just having a rage while we sit and wonder why. I've really been trying to get her to understand that if she flies into a rage and doesn't talk about what's going on, we can't help her because we can't read her mind, and she is trying to be better about it. But this physical thing has got me more worried now.

About two months ago, we changed her medicine from Risperdal to Chlonodine. She was developing a facial tick, which can happen with these meds, and had to be switched. But now I'm wondering if this aggression is a side effect of the new med. It's kind of scary to see this sweet, tiny girl with so much potential turn into a bully. I don't want this to happen. I'm taking her back to the doctor to see if it could possibly be the chlonodine, and if so, what we can do to fix the problem. Have you ever dealt with this drug? If so, was this a side effect?