Sara Bareilles opens up about taking medication to manage her mental health
Sara Bareilles is showing her social media followers the medication she takes to manage her mental health.
The “I Choose You” singer took to Instagram on Jan. 18 to share a photo of a small white pill, which, as she explained in the caption, has had a profound impact on her mental health.
“This is my medicine,” Bareilles began her post. “(Not pictured medicines: friends/family, therapy, exercise, sleep and meditation.) I wanted to write a little bit about the fact that after 20 years of feeling very strongly that it was not the path I needed to take…I have tried medication for the first time. For the first time in months I can feel myself again — my joy, my optimism and my laughter are among some of the precious parts of myself I have rediscovered. They sit at my soul’s table, along with my sweet sadness and my tender anxiety…who, by the way, aren’t the only ones talking anymore. It is a profound, holy relief.”
Bareilles shared that she battles depression and anxiety, and that for the past year she felt “desperate” and “overwhelmed” much of the time.
“The amount of energy it took to ‘manage’ my emotions (I use that term loosely because that makes me seem like I had a handle on anything) would exhaust me so much that my whole sense of myself got distorted. I didn’t feel like me anymore,” she continued. “Depression is not rational. It does not respond to ‘I have so much to be grateful for,’ or ‘just concentrate on the good things.’ I have moved through depression and anxiety many times in my life, but this time I needed extra help.”
While Bareilles shared that she had “many feelings” about taking medication, including whether she was taking a “short cut,” she ultimately realized that “this medicine helped me see myself again, without the cloak of depression and anxiety.”
The Girls5Eva actress received plenty of praise in her comments section for her candor, with Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles writing, "I love all of your precious self and am so happy you have found the support you need!!!! You feeling good and feeling yourself is a gift to the world!!!" Josh Groban added, "What an extraordinary step and even more so to share it. The whole you is what you deserve and what we are lucky to have in our lives. Keep stepping towards the light my friend."
Bareilles isn’t the only star to get candid about taking medication to help with mental health struggles. In 2020, Katy Perry told Howard Stern on his SiriusXM talk show that she was initially “ashamed” of taking medication for her depression.
“I was like . . . I wrote 'Firework,’” Perry explained. “But it was one of those things where I'd sprained my brain a little bit."
Last year, actress Alyssa Milano opened up on TikTok about taking medication after a user joked she had “forgotten” to take it that day.
“I have anxiety with complex PTS [post-tramautic stress], and panic disorder. I take my medicine, because I like to just be functional,” the Charmed alum explained. “I think it’s time we destigmatize medication for mental health, like we’ve destigmatized, I don’t know, say, Botox?”
Want lifestyle and wellness news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here for Yahoo Life’s newsletter.
