My son has been on escitalopram (Lexapro) since he was 6. He's now 17. The last few years he's had more anxiety/depression/feeling numb and the psychiatry CRNP has increased and added other meds with no improvement. After a discussion about how much he's grown since he was first put on it and how higher dosage is not helping him this last year, we decided to wean him off and see how he does. We've been weaning him off even slower than his CRNP felt necessary to avoid withdrawal symptoms and it's just been rough. He's more anxious and depressed than ever and easily agitated. He just feels hopeless and broken. He was at 25 mg daily. On July 29th, I reduced to 22.5. Then ten days later, I reduced another 2.5. The CRNP said that was not necessary that I can reduce easily by 5 mg. I continued the 2.5 but reduced more frequently. He's down to 10 mg as of 9/14. I've been adding a stress relief supplement called Levium in hopes that it would help him wean off easier but he's really struggling. I wish there was something that could be taken to help buffer the process but not cause its own side effects or addiction. Any suggestions on what help others that have gone through this process before? Was anyone successful at staying off of it?

Jump to this post