{"id":260601,"date":"2026-01-23T23:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T23:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/260601\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T23:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T23:17:07","slug":"how-celebrities-naming-their-antidepressants-out-loud-is-quietly-reshaping-mental-health-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/260601\/","title":{"rendered":"How celebrities naming their antidepressants out loud is quietly reshaping mental health culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last November, I was on the red carpet at BravoCon<\/a> when I approached Summer House stars Amanda Batula and Ciara Miller<\/a> and asked them to share one small thing<\/a> that has changed their lives. They didn\u2019t miss a beat. \u201cProzac,\u201d the reality stars answered in unison.<\/p>\n

Batula went on to divulge her dosage \u2014 10 milligrams. \u201cOh, I\u2019m at 50,\u201d Miller admitted. But neither felt any shame about taking an antidepressant. \u201cWe\u2019re two depressed girls just out here thriving,\u201d Batula told me.<\/p>\n

That sort of transparency about mental health would have been startling not so long ago, but it\u2019s becoming increasingly common for celebrities to spill the details on what\u2019s in their medicine cabinet. \u201cBrought to you \u2026 by Lexapro,\u201d Kelsea Ballerini captioned an Instagram post <\/a>in October. Singer Hayley Williams named one of her new tracks \u201cMirtazapine,\u201d<\/a> an ode to her \u201cgenie in a screw-top bottle.\u201d On Amy Poehler\u2019s Good Hang podcast<\/a> in June, Dakota Johnson quipped<\/a>, \u201cI take supplements \u2014 like Xanax.\u201d In an interview with the New Yorker, Jennifer Lawrence opened up about being prescribed Zurzuvae<\/a> to treat her postpartum depression, while Presley Gerber, son of Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber, took to Instagram<\/a> to discuss the medications he\u2019s taking for his mental health. Reality star Gabby Windey of The Bachelorette and Traitors fame put it a bit more casually: It\u2019s \u201cLamictal girl fall,\u201d she declared in a November Instagram post<\/a> that included a picture of her pill case.<\/p>\n

Dr. Sarah Oreck<\/a>, a reproductive psychiatrist and the CEO and cofounder of Mavida Health<\/a>, is used to discussing psychiatric medications behind closed doors. But those conversations have become more public over the last few years, she tells Yahoo.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just started to notice it post-pandemic,\u201d Oreck says. \u201cPeople used to talk about treatment very vaguely. And then all of a sudden, people were naming drugs. That never used to happen.\u201d Oreck likens the moment to Kylie Jenner revealing her breast implant size<\/a> on Instagram, which became a pop culture inflection point that signaled a new kind of candor. Even Oprah Winfrey\u2019s honesty about being on a GLP-1 for weight loss<\/a> is comparable. \u201cIt\u2019s like, OK, we\u2019re going to be really real now.\u201d<\/p>\n

That transparency \u2014 not just alluding to dealing with mental health issues but naming specific solutions, without shame \u2014 matters to Jayme Cyk, the writer behind the Substack I\u2019m On An Antidepressant<\/a> and cofounder of the supplement brand And Repeat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s really interesting how the conversation started with, \u2018I’m taking something to help me feel better,\u2019 to \u2018I’m on antidepressants,\u2019 to getting a little bit more scientific,\u201d Cyk tells Yahoo. \u201cSeeing people be like, \u2018I’m on Prozac,\u2019 \u2018I’m on Zoloft,\u2019 feels just like an extra layer that is even more open than anyone has ever been on the internet around what they’re taking and the actual benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s also striking is that the response to these medication disclosures is largely one of acceptance and relatability, not controversy and stigma. When Brooke Shields wrote about being prescribed the antidepressant Paxil after struggling with postpartum depression in her 2005 memoir, she was berated by Tom Cruise for spreading \u201cmisinformation.\u201d (He has since apologized<\/a>, according to Shields.) More recently, Amanda Seyfried made headlines in 2017 when she defended her decision to stay on Lexapro<\/a>, which she takes for her obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), during pregnancy. Such admissions are now met with less scrutiny and more nonchalance.<\/p>\n

Cyk has been on Prozac since she was 9 years old, but didn\u2019t feel comfortable opening up about it until adulthood. Hearing more people in the public sphere talk about their own experiences would have made a difference, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a lot of shame around it because nobody was talking about antidepressants,\u201d she says. \u201cIt wasn’t until I was actually 18 that I started to take it every day and realize that this was something that helped me. So it’s something that has always been top of mind, but it’s not something that I actually started to speak to other people about until I was probably in my early 30s.\u201d<\/p>\n

At its core, the shift toward naming medications is about destigmatization. But it\u2019s also about education. For many people, antidepressants are not only abstract but also serious, clinical or vaguely ominous. Hearing a familiar name attached to a familiar face, like Johnson mentioning Xanax, can cut through that fear.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives people a reference point,\u201d says Oreck. \u201cIf you\u2019ve never heard of a medication before, it can feel experimental or scary. But once you hear the name, especially more than once, it starts to feel real. Not just something your doctor is trying out on you.\u201d<\/p>\n

That reference point can have a tangible, real-world impact. Oreck recalls prescribing Zurzuvae<\/a>, a newer FDA-approved medication for postpartum depression, to patients who were hesitant simply because they didn\u2019t recognize the name. That changed after Lawrence spoke publicly about taking it.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my patients told me, \u2018I\u2019m embarrassed to say this, but it wasn\u2019t until I heard Jennifer Lawrence talk about it that I finally felt OK taking it,\u2019\u201d Oreck says. \u201cShe knows Jennifer Lawrence is doing well. She\u2019s successful, she\u2019s visible, she\u2019s functioning. It becomes a real-life model of what life can look like on the other side.\u201d<\/p>\n

In online discussions, particularly on Reddit, people are increasingly seeking out celebrity reference points of their own. One came from a musician who wanted to know whether any well-known artists had spoken openly about taking the medication they were about to start. They wanted to know how it might affect their creativity. Some commenters pointed to Williams\u2019s song<\/a> about her own experience on the antidepressant mirtazapine. Another thread<\/a> led to people sharing multiple names of famous figures who have spoken explicitly about taking Zoloft.<\/p>\n

This is how celebrity disclosures move beyond relatability into reassurance. For people who have only encountered antidepressants through hushed conversations, that kind of visibility can come off as permission to explore their own options of getting help, if needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we continue to recognize the names, recognize that there’s a dosage involved, we get further into being like, these aren’t things to be afraid of,\u201d says Cyk. \u201cThese are things that are helpful, and you’ll have your own experience with them, but know that we can all talk about it to help energize the person to not feel so afraid of taking them.\u201d<\/p>\n

That visibility does come with risks, Oreck adds. \u201cIt’s a double-edged sword,\u201d she says, specifically when someone feels emotionally connected to a public figure and decides that the drug they\u2019ve named is the best fit for them too.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople just have to have a more nuanced approach, like, \u2018That’s so cool that they said that. Let me ask my doctor to see if it’s a good fit for me,\u2019 vs. demanding Prozac because Ciara on Summer House uses it,\u201d says Oreck.<\/p>\n

This is where more transparency, more voices and more naming of different tools and prescriptions should come into play, according to Cyk. \u201cWe hear the term antidepressants all the time, but if you don’t take one, do you necessarily know all these different names? \u2026 I don’t know if people know that there isn’t one that\u2019s going to work for everyone,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

To her, the broader the conversation, the more options that people have to help guide them in the right direction, rather than being indicative of what someone should take. Cyk is also adamant that those on antidepressants aren\u2019t obligated to talk about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not like everybody needs to scream at the top of their lungs about what specific antidepressants they’re taking,\u201d says Cyk. \u201cIf you can at least say that you are taking something, that’s just gonna help a lot of people overall. But when we talk about the brand name of what you’re actually taking, it breaks the stigma even further.\u201d<\/p>\n