HGTV ‘Good Bones’ Star Mina Starsiak Hawk Opens Up About Her Mental Health Issues
‘Parish’ Is Out for Justice in the Explosive Season Finale
Will Gray be forced to get his hands dirty? Get a sneak peek at the final episode of the AMC series.
Mina Starsiak Hawk has opened up about her mental health battle and how her recent experience changing her medication affected her sex life and caused her to have “little brain seizures.” The HGTV Good Bones star gave fans an insight into what she’s been going through on the latest episode of her podcast Mina AF.
She revealed that to help her deal with stress, she started taking the antidepressant Wellbutrin as instructed by her therapist. She later began to combine it with Lexapro, which treats certain types of depression and anxiety.
“I was on Wellbutrin and Lexapro for the longest time. I was like, ‘This is great, this is the perfect combination for me. It keeps me myself, but just not as high level anxiety,” she said. “I physically manifest my anxiety. 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 admitted that it began to affect her sex life with her husband, Steve Hawk, as some of the medication’s less common side effects include decreased sexual desire, ability, drive, and performance.
She slowly started to wean herself off of Lexapro earlier in 2023. When she came to her therapist with the decision, the therapist suggested taking an anti-anxiety drug, Latuda, before gradually reducing her 10-milligram dosage of Lexapro every 10 days. Her anxiety felt manageable when she stopped taking it for two weeks. However, she then began to have 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.”
“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.
After a while, she’d been withstanding the symptoms for two months before deciding she could deal with it for another month or two, and the side effects soon left her, she confirmed.
Nearly 20% of patients develop antidepressant discontinuation syndrome after they stop taking antidepressants for a month or more. A possible symptom is sensory disturbances, which include tingling and “shock-like” sensations.
Mina Starsiak Hawk and her husband, Steve.
It’s not the first time that Starsiak Hawk has been getting candid about her personal problems. She previously spoke out about her relationship with her mother and TV co-star family, Karen E. Laine.
In the August 28 episode of her podcast, Starsiak Hawk said she’s “not on good terms” with her mom and her brother Tad Starsiak.
While she didn’t elaborate on a possible cause for the friction, she noted, “No one’s punching the other person in the face by any means.” Instead, Starsiak Hawk shared, “We all just exist because it’s what makes my dad happy. And that’s that’s fine. That’s been fine for a long time. It’s fine for a lot of families. I just don’t think it’s fine anymore.”
She also mentioned how it affected their time on their show, Good Bones.
“There were definitely some challenging [moments] because my mom and I were in some of the most challenging places I felt we’ve been,” she said.
One example Starsiak Hawk gave is a “knockdown drag-out [fight] during demo” with her mom in the season premiere. “I was like, ‘I wonder if anyone’s going to be able to tell,’” she mused. “And of course, you can’t because that’s the idea. People…that’s not why they’re tuning in to watch Good Bones. That’s not what they want.”
Mina and her mom have also been having business problems lately. The mother-daughter duo recently announced that their Indianapolis home goods store, Bates Hendricks, is to close at the end of 2023, according to a social media post on September 29. After over three years of operation, Starsiak Hawk mentioned “numerous challenges,” especially its unfortunate grand opening during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, are the reasons behind the decision.
“I wanted to create a gathering place in Bates Hendricks, a place for locals as well as visitors coming to our amazing city,” Starsiak Hawk wrote. “I want to thank the local community as well as the incredibly dedicated fans of Good Bones for their support and for being part of this journey with me.”
“It has been our second home, so saying goodbye, while gut-wrenching, is the decision I have to make for my family,” she wrote on Facebook. “Please understand, and please give grace. What seems to be is often not what is.”
Check out the podcast episode below.
