Caroline Flack's candid interview about taking antidepressants raises questions about the stigma attached to medication
The presenter describes her negative experience on citalopram as having a 'numbing' effect on her - which some say is 'dangerous'
https://inews.co.uk/opinion/columnists/caroline-flacks-candid-interview-about-taking-antidepressants-raises-questions-about-the-stigma-attached-to-medication-191241
Caroline Flack RIP a victim of ANTIDEPRESSANTS, not internet trolls?
Richie Allen, Tony Gosling 18 Feb 2020
www.richieallen.co.uk
Social networking – advisory guidelines for journalists
The NUJ’s New Media Industrial Council (NMIC) has produced a set of guidelines on the use of social media specifically aimed at journalists, who are increasingly facing problems with employers as a result of their use of popular sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
The guidelines should not be considered authoritative in any way, and they do not have any legal force whatsoever, but they may give you some idea of the complications that might arise from ill-considered use of social media and some help in avoiding any pitfalls that could lead to disciplinary action or worse.
http://www.nujcec.org/brussels/index.php/membs-1/member-resources/social-networking-journalists2/
Flack was prescribed a drug called Citalopram - a type of antidepressant known as an SSRI, which stands for 'selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor' - after suffering a panic attack in her X Factor dressing room moments before she had to take to the stage.
https://inews.co.uk/opinion/columnists/caroline-flacks-candid-interview-about-taking-antidepressants-raises-questions-about-the-stigma-attached-to-medication-191241
“While antidepressants can work for some people, I became a little too reliant on them — if you forget to take one, you feel awful."
She went on to describe taking them as a "whirlwind for your body" and having to sit down midway through a photoshoot for her book cover because she was "so dizzy". She didn't tell anyone she was taking medication - including Simon Cowell - because she felt too embarrassed.
“I was mortified, which I now know is ridiculous and was all in my head,” she added, saying that she "eventually went to a juice retreat in the Mediterranean to wean myself off them" because she felt it was the only way she could "get them out" of her body.
Antidepressant stigma
Anyone who speaks as candidly as Flack has done about their experience of depression should be praised for doing so. It's this sort of awareness-raising by people in the public eye that helps to erode some of the social stigmas surrounding those who suffer from mental health issues and have, or are, undergoing treatment for them.
However, her singular description has raised some interesting questions about the continuing stigma attached to taking antidepressant medication, whipped up to fever-pitch by headlines describing doctors handing them out "like sweets", or of a nation "hooked on happy pills".
17:40
4:21
5:13
21:26
22:09
