Sadly, meds are needed-Please share med experiences

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Mama to Grace
I thought of you last night as I was re-reading Tony Attwood's Complete Guide to Aspergers. Have you read this one? He was talking about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and one of the suggestions he had was for the child to make an emotional scrapbook. I remembered about how you said your DD liked looking at her photo album and I wondered if this emotional scarpbook idea might work for her. Attwood suggests focusing on a good emotion first like happiness. So start by filling the pages of the scrapbook with pictures of things that make the child happy, their special interest or whatever, then cut out pictures from magazines of people who look happy... I'm probably not doing a great job explaining this. Once you have done some good emotions, then he suggests you move on to some problem emotions. Maybe this is all stuff your therapist has already worked on with her but just thought I'd share.

Thanks Bombaloo, that's a great idea! I'll go re-read that.

So sorry Mama to Grace, I know what a hard decision this is to make. I wrestled with putting my oldest (early onset bi polar) on meds for a long time. Even doing that was difficult because it seems like you are experimenting with your kids. You try them on one and then wait to see what happens.
I know that nearly all my emotions can turn to rage....fear, sadness, anxiety. They are big and hard to take so it is actually a release to want to "rage" however after wards you feel terrible and during sometimes can be very scary. My anxiety, now that Im an adult, eats at me until I explode in some way. The only thing that has helped me is a very low dose of valium. Ativan may be better for a child because its a small pill that will disolve under the tongue. I think that doctors may shy away from giving you benzodiazepines for your child but you can always try and raise some good arguments. The thing that I like about it is that its not something you have to take all the time or every day. It is also a relief that they are there when I need them. That idea in itself, that there is something that can help, can calm me. There is the physical dependency that can result from taking them too often but if you think about it you can not stop SSRI's cold turkey either so its the same thing really.
Personally I would stay away from drugs like Rispiradol....I know that this is a popular drug lately for autistic kids but it is a very powerful anti psychotic. Please read up on it and all the side effects before accepting to put your child on it.
Regardless try not to beat yourself up too much. You have tried everything else and your daughter is asking for your help so dont feel bad doing that.