I love risperidal. My experience has been great. It curbed the aggression and allowed me to use the techniques learned with the behavioral therapist. I personally believe that my son can rise to the challenge with medication. I could care less about the stigma of medication. I want him to live the best life that he can. Why should I force him to live the life I want and not give him every chance to know the peace and joy that he is capable. It is not a magic pill. You are both going to have to unlearn the unacceptable behavior responses. We take our medicine faithfully everyday. We do not skip on the weekends. If that regimen does not work for you don't give up. There are so many choices of medications. Go into your Dr. with all your questions. I started at the lowest dose and as he grew I adjusted accordingly. You may even find that a combination works best.

Get all your information and make the best decision you can.

Please those who don't take meds, don't take my life experiences as a personal attack on your life choices. I'm not debating to take meds or not to take meds.

I have a 13 yr old daughter that started becoming self injurious and violent started around 11. We tried diet etc. Finally tried Resperdal it has helped her tremendously. We do 5mg twice daily.

Thank you everyone for all of your thoughts and suggestions :) I am looking forward to getting in with her doctor to see what they suggest as well so we can come up with an action plan for her to start getting her back on track to being the sweet loving little girl I know she is

My son was on Risperidone for aggression. It really helped his aggression, temper tantrums & SIB. The only side effect he had was it increased his appetite, which wasn't a bad thing as he was already too thin. He only gained a few pounds during the year he was on it. Risperidone has a bad rep, but if you monitor labs closely (like we did my son), then it's not so worrisome. My sons labs were always normal. I can say that risperidone helped improve my sons quality of life as he was not in constant turmoil anymore after he started taking it.

W e do not use any meds - go with your gut