Jana Kramer says she’s off anxiety medication for the first time in 18 years
Jana Kramer is opening up about her decision to wean off anxiety medications.
On Monday's episode of her Whine Down podcast, the singer, 39, revealed that she's been off her meds for over a month after being on some form of prescription for the last 18 years.
“I am officially a month and a week off anxiety meds,” she said. “I have not had an anxiety attack yet.”
Kramer, who shares daughter Jolie, 6, and son Jace, 4, with ex-husband Mike Caussin, explained that she made the decision to "wean down" from Lexapro — a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) used to treat anxiety and depression — after having having her firstborn.
Despite her best efforts to wean off of the medication, Kramer said she still had panic attacks and anxiety attacks that kept her from going off completely. Then, after splitting from her ex-husband Mike Caussin in April 2021, the panic attacks stopped altogether.
“Post getting divorced, I have not had a panic attack,” she said. “It’s like when you release the negative or the triggers from the past or something that may remind you of it. That was still in my body.”
The discovery led her to talk to her doctor about the possibility of going off her meds completely.
“To be honest with you, doc, I haven’t had an anxiety attack since I got divorced,” the Good Fight co-author recalled saying to her doctor. "In my mind, I was like, ‘Can I [go off completely]? Like, how? Am I gonna be OK?'”
Her concerns were met with positive reassurance from her physician: “‘In a month or so, you might have to go back on, and that’s OK,'” she recalled the doctor staying. “‘Don’t beat yourself up.'”
Kramer has opened up in the past about how the tumultuous marriage with Caussin caused her mental anguish.
In an October episode of Facebook Watch's Red Table Talk, Kramer revealed that she "destroyed" Caussin's things — including an expensive tuxedo and multiple Xboxes — after discovering that he cheated on her with over 13 women.
"I shattered so many things in my house," she said. "There was this pantry door ... so me and my girlfriends took a bat to it ... I destroyed all his Xboxes and all those things he said was his only vice. I wrote all over his tux. I went real crazy for a minute."
Kramer, who is currently single but continues to co-parent her little ones with Caussin, told Yahoo Life in November that her biggest dreams these days is to find peace in her life.
“I know in order to be a good mom, a good partner — hopefully one day — and a good boss, I have to take care of myself and I have to show up for myself too," she explains. "I think we're always showing up for other people that we forget about ourselves. To give yourself that peace and that grace and that investment goes a long way.”
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