Craig and MarKay have been married for over 35 years, and like any marriage, theirs has had its share of significant struggles, even within the context of their Christian faith. After MarKay’s first back surgery, she was prescribed an SSRI antidepressant. Initially, she found significant improvement in her mood, but more subtle changes followed: mental blunting, brain fog, loss of creativity, weight gain, emotional numbness, and an increasing distance from God and the people she loved most. Over time, this led to choices and behaviors that were completely out of character for her and deeply painful for their marriage and family.
Struggling to make sense of this uncharacteristic shift, MarKay eventually went back to school for a master’s degree in social work, with an emphasis in counseling. But her education, along with her own work in therapy, didn’t fully answer the question of why she had changed. Multiple attempts to come off her psychiatric medications under her physicians’ direction failed due to adverse reactions. Finally, she found an online community dedicated to helping people taper safely, and while reading others’ stories, she recognized her own experience for the first time.
MarKay and Craig credit their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for holding their family together through this difficult season. Their own journey, and the knowledge they gained about how hard these medications can be to discontinue safely, are what led them to help others who are beginning their own tapering journeys. Today, Breaking Free Wellness offers personalized psychiatric medication taper coaching and pharmacist-led medication reviews to provide education and support throughout the process, working alongside each client’s prescribing healthcare provider.
For those seeking additional encouragement and connection, Breaking Free Wellness is also developing medication tapering support groups, which are coming soon.