Mental Health and Medication - removing the stigma

I’ve spoken a lot both publicly and privately about my struggle with mental health and specifically anxiety. Whether it’s using therapy, long walks, podcasts, exercise, reading, spin classes, pilates, meditation, I alternate between different tools to help manage my mental health.

But the one thing I haven’t spoken about, and is rarely discussed, is medication’s role in  supporting mental health in a positive way.

A big sceptic

Now, if you had asked me five years ago about my thoughts on taking medication, I would have had a very extreme reaction. Something along the lines of…”medication is a last resort” and “medication is prescribed too easily and there are so many side effects”.

Also, at the centre of this sat my family’s own history with mental health. My mum had been on ‘happy pills’ since my early teens shortly after my dad died, and I had seen the negative impact of depression both on my mum, and as a result, me too. This led to the profound belief that medication either didn’t work, wasn’t helpful or was only for severe cases. Which, despite my struggles, I was definitely not one of them.

Then I read Matt Haig’s book - Reasons to Stay Alive. This book completely changed my perception of both depression, but also medication as part of this journey. Haig’s frank and honest account of his own experience with depression, anxiety, and life in general gave me insight and much needed empathy as to how people with severe depression feel and why medication can and should be an option to consider.

It also broke a number of the taboos that I had held about medication as a tool for mental illness. For example, medication…

●     …will change who I am!

●     …will make me feel lethargic and slurry

●     …won’t work, but I will become addicted

●     …will definitely work and be the silver bullet

●     …’s side effects will be too much

Medication is not a weakness

Three years ago in the height of COVID, a series of panic attacks and extreme stress, I finally gave in and started taking anti-anxiety medication.

It wasn’t easy. Despite Matt Haig’s book helping my understanding of how medication will take off the extreme highs and lows I was feeling, that I was in control and that it was part of my self care and mental health management, I felt like I was failing by giving in. I felt like it was weak.

Let me tell you, it is absolutely NOT!

That is when a close friend and former PR colleague turned round to me and said, ‘you don’t need to struggle this hard. Give yourself a break. Medication can help level you out and just get through until you are mentally and physically stronger.’

At that moment, a weight lifted and we had an honest conversation about antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication. Turns out they had been on some form of meds for several years and it was crucial to helping their own mental health maintenance.

I had no idea! No one really talked about medication at that point - not in my friend groups, work colleagues, family or online. I could find instagram posts about the benefits of walking, exercise, meditation to help mental health - and I was one of them - but very rarely did anyone talk about medication in a positive or realistic way. This was, and is, a massive gap and an issue we need to address in our industry and society in general.

Taking the edge off

So I started small. I dealt with the side effects - the first few weeks were rough and I was a lot more anxious. But, supported by friends, therapy, and a few lifestyle changes I leveled out and my mental health became more manageable for the first time in years.

I’m on Sertraline and I have been since that day. I have upped my dose when I feel like I am struggling too much, but I do this by having conversations with friends who have been open and are in a similar position, and of course my GP.

At this point, I don’t see myself coming off it any time soon. I have found when speaking to doctors that they have either been quick to prescribe or leaning on me to come off it. But I know my body and my mind, and it is my choice as and when this happens - this I learnt from conversations with friends.

Let’s be open

To put it simply, medication works for me at the moment. It won’t for everyone and that’s ok, but for me it is a vital part of maintaining a happy and healthy lifestyle. I really believe that it should be an option, and that only comes by more people being open about it as part of mental health in a positive way, not extreme cases or a dirty secret.

I completely appreciate that medication can be a private and sensitive topic, however talking about it, especially in the realms of mental health in stressful industries like PR, comms and marketing can be hugely powerful.

So, I hope this helps someone. If anyone wants to talk about medication and mental health, I am always here to talk as others have been with me, so reach out.