Een fan op TikTok reageerde op Alysa met de vraag of ze haar medicatie had ingenomen. Hierop besloot Alyssa op te zijn over haar mentale problemen. In 2018 was ze er ook al open over in een interview met Time Magazine, om zo het taboe erover te breken en het normaal te maken om er met andere over te praten. Ze gaf toen toe sinds geboorte van haar zoon Milo met een angst- en paniekstoornis te hebben, toen ze een postnatale depressie kreeg. Ze heeft eerder al hebben ;laten weten hiervoor kort te zijn opgenomen en een therapeut heeft. Om haar angste onder controle te houd neemt ze enkele dag medicatie, omdat ze wil kunnen functioneren in het dagelijks leven. Ze roep fans daarom ook op om hulp te zoeken als ze deze nodig hebben.
Alyssa Milano shut down a social media troll who snarkily referred to her mental health struggles.
“Did you forget to take your medication?” the user asked in one of her videos. “First of all, no I did not forget to take my medication,” Milano, 48, responded candidly in a separate clip. “I take my medication every day.”
Detailing her medical history, she continued, “I have anxiety with complex PTS and panic disorder, so I take my medicine because I like to just be functional.” The “Who’s The Boss?” star then added, “I think it’s time that we de-stigmatize medication from mental health like we’ve de-stigmatized say, I don’t know, Botox. OK, thanks for listening.”
Milano reiterated her point in her caption, writing, “Can we try to get away from flippantly using mental health language as descriptors or insults?”
Several fans and celebs, including fellow celeb Sharon Stone, applauded the former “Charmed” star for her stance on mental health. “Brava,” Stone wrote. One fan commented, “Preach🙌 I’m so over society using metal health as a comical insult. Let’s not shame or demoralize people for wanting to maintain a level of health and functioning.”
Milano has been working to normalize the public’s view on mental health struggles since 2018. That year, she revealed in an essay for TIME magazine that she began battling anxiety after the birth of her son Milo in 2011. “My Generalized Anxiety Disorder was most likely triggered by my postpartum depression, and my journey with mental illnesses began with my journey into motherhood,” she shared.
The TV star also disclosed in that piece that she suffered an anxiety attack her first night back from the hospital. “I felt like I had already disappointed my child,” she wrote. “I felt like I failed as a mother, since I was not able to give birth vaginally or nourish him with the breast milk that had not come in yet. My heart raced. My stomach seized up. I felt like I was dying.”
Earlier this week, Milano continued to be candid with her followers in a video about the work it took to overcome her anxiety, urging her followers in the caption, “Ask for help if you need it. ❤️.”
