SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) – One in six Americans takes or has taken antidepressants, according to the National Institutes of Health.<\/p>\n
Recent comments by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about a common type of drug used to treat anxiety and depression have some Americans worried. Local mental health professionals say it\u2019s important to work with your mental health team to make the best decision for you.<\/p>\n
For Stacy Fox, music isn\u2019t just something she teaches\u2014it\u2019s part of her mental health journey. After a severe downturn just days after graduation, she says she was diagnosed with bipolar I disorder.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt got so bad that I ended up becoming delirious and ended up in the psych ward. And I lost a lot of weight. I wasn\u2019t eating. I was literally losing my mind. And so, from then, I got diagnosed with bipolar disorder,\u201d Fox said.<\/p>\n
Fox says music therapy, family support, and finding the right medication helped her stabilize and keep doing what she loves.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to be diligent to work with your doctors. If your doctors are willing, and some of them are, to change the medicine to find the right dosage. Because it took me probably 10 or 11 different medicines,\u201d Fox said.<\/p>\n
Patients raising concerns about medication<\/p>\n
Kennedy Jr. says he wants to reduce what he views as over-prescribing SSRIs\u2014a common class of medications used to treat depression and anxiety and promote alternative mental health approaches.<\/p>\n
Emily Wouk works for Burrell Behavioral Health as a nurse practitioner in Springfield. She says she\u2019s already hearing concern from patients.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m already seeing patients concerned about the news and the social media that\u2019s going on,\u201d Wouk said. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve already had a lot of questions from my patients regarding their medications. Some of them have wanted to stop them cold turkey. And it\u2019s a very big risk. And it\u2019s a big decision also. So, it\u2019s a collaborative approach. It\u2019s something that really needs to be considered and talked to with a medical professional.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Erica Mahn, a pharmacist with Alps Pharmacy, says it is a process to stop taking SSRIs in a healthy way.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou really need four to six weeks to work yourself off of the medication so you don\u2019t have abrupt side effects of feeling miserable all of a sudden from not having this medicine that\u2019s been adjusting the chemicals in your brain,\u201d Mahn said.<\/p>\n
Doctors say stigma around mental health and medication has improved in recent years, and hope this doesn\u2019t keep people from getting help.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m able to do what I love and work. And I know people that weren\u2019t able to do that because they didn\u2019t think they could with that stigma. But you can, and there is hope,\u201d Fox said.<\/p>\n