Photo:Mina Starsiak Hawk/Instagram
Mina Starsiak Hawk/Instagram
Mina Starsiak Hawkopens up about her mental health journey in the latest episode of her podcast,Mina AF,sharing a recent experience with an adjustment to her medication.
She began undergoing talk therapy in addition to taking the antidepressant Wellbutrin, though she notes she wasn’t depressed. Under her doctor’s supervision, she later started pairing the drug with Lexapro, which is used to treat certain types of depression and anxiety.
“I was on Wellbutrin and Lexapro for the longest time,” she said. “I was like, ‘This is great, this is the perfect combination for me. It keeps me myself, but just not as high level anxiety.'”
“I physically manifest my anxiety,” she added. “My jaw locks up, I clench my fists, I get nauseous because my stomach is clenched. So, the addition of the Lexapro was really, really helpful for me to just make all the feelings still there, but the unproductive anxiety part of the feeling kind of much more manageable.”
However, she and husband Steve Hawk discussed one downside of taking Lexapro, an SSRI that can cause sexual dysfunction.
Mina Starsiak Hawk/ Instagram
Accordingto the Mayo Clinic,some of the medication’s less common side effects include decreased interest in sexual intercourse and loss in sexual ability, desire, drive, or performance.
Realizing that they couldn’t change the other stressors impacting their sex life, such as being parents to two young children, Mina decided to wean herself off Lexapro earlier this year.
When she discussed the decision with her therapist, the doctor recommended adding the anti-anxiety drug Latuda before gradually reducing her 10-milligram dosage of Lexapro every 10 days.
When she’d been completely off Lexapro for a couple weeks, she thought she was “in the clear” and her anxiety felt manageable, she says. But then she started having “crazy” physical symptoms.
“At the time, I said it felt like I was putting my tongue on a D battery inside my brain. It was like these zaps, but they were like misfires. It felt like my brain was having these little zappy seizures all the time, all day, and this had been going on for a month, along with lethargy and nausea.”
She eventually started researching SSRI withdrawal symptoms and made the connection with what she was experiencing since stopping the Lexapro.
“Steve’s like, ‘Screw this, it’s not worth it, get back on the Lexapro, we’ll figure out sex. I’m not worried about that, you’re having little brain seizures,’” she said.
By that point, she had been coping with the symptoms for two months, and decided she could deal with them for another month or two. And over that time span, the side effects did fade away, she said.
According toa 2017 studypublished in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, about 20% of patients develop antidepressant discontinuation syndrome after stopping the use of antidepressants taken continuously for a month or more. One possible symptom is sensory disturbances, which can include burning, tingling and “electric-like” or “shock-like” sensations.
Earlier this month, Mina opened up toPEOPLEabout how she’s been trying to use her podcast to share the “non-pretty parts."
On one recent episode, she and Steve had a candid conversation about their decision togive up alcohol.
And on another, Minashared a dilemmaover whether to address conflicts with her mom andGood Bonesco-star, Karen E. Laine, and brothers, Tad and William, ahead of her 5-year-old son Jack’s birthday party. (She and Steve are also parents to a 2-year-old daughter, Charlie.)
Michael Kovac/Getty
In August, Mina used her podcast to reflect on theend ofGood Bones,which is currently in its eighth and final season.
“Something I’m super, super proud of, and really grateful to the network for, is making a show for the last eight years that, for the huge majority of the time, has been super representative of who I am, who the boys are, what we’re doing, and it was really important to me from the beginning to do that,” she added.
She noted, however, “The end of anything is just hard.”
source: people.com
