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| #thefaceofantidepressants
This is the face of a mother.
This is the face of a partner.
This is the face of a friend.
The face of someone you know.
This is the face of antidepressants.
There has always been a sense of failure surrounding
medication for depression or anxiety, the fact they are derogatorily nicknamed ‘happy
pills’ does not help.
Someone close to me recently remarked that he did not know
any female in their late twenties in close friendship circle and family that were
not currently taking antidepressants. If that is the case, if we are all ‘secretly’,
on them why is it such a big taboo still?
Why is it not socially acceptable to stand up and admit,
that yes, you are on anti-depressants?
I have written before about the sense of shame of having to
go on and off medication to be happy, to function. Especially as a mother, one
of the hardest things you will ever have to do is admit that you need help and
it took me a long time to accept the forms the help could come in. Medication
being one of them.
When I was pregnant the Doctor said to me that if I wobbled
just for a minute during pregnancy it was safer for me to go back on my
tablets. It is like if you have a heart condition and you must take pills
everyday would you stop because of what people may think of you?
No.
So, why is it as a society we view anti-depressants with
such resentment, guilt and even shame?
After the birth of my second son, I was diagnosed with
severe PND and anxiety, it took me 6 weeks to know I was at my limit. The best-case
scenario for everyone involved especially my boys was to go back on them.
7 months on, and I have processed a lot and feel as though
my head is slowly coming out of the water. Medication was responsible for a lot
of that. Finding ways to manage to function and talking openly and honestly.
Another amazing advocate for trying to remove the stigma from
taking anti-depressants and the guilt we are supposed to feel is Amy Ransom from Surviving Motherhood who has
started an amazing campaign #thisisthefaceofantidepressants
We are all different, we all need help now and again and
whatever form that comes in, there should be no shame. There should be no wall
put up around the subject of mental health.
What works for us, works.
I am a mother of two, partner, freelance writer and stay at
home mum juggling it all including the cat eating fish fingers off the floor,
and this is my face. #thisisthefaceofantidepressants
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I am sitting on the sofa with C Beebies blasting out and I look to my right, I feel a little hand grab mine. Elijah looks up at me and says, ‘Mummy’. This is one of those things that happens about a hundred times a day, but now and again I really take stock of them. I sweep his fringe out of his eyes and give him a little hug. There was a time that I may not have ever been able to do this. To be able to raise my (nearly) two-year-old as a normal, happy and healthy little boy. He may not have even be here at all. I am only able to do this because of Great Ormond Street Hospital. After Elijah’s diagnosis of Tetralogy of Fallot at birth, after his admission to NICU we had always known he needed open heart surgery to repair his heart. To put it simply, to save his life. Being a mother to Elijah means everything to me. GOSH saved my family. It was scheduled to be around the 6 month of age mark that he would have this surgery, from the latest consultant appointment a...
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