Since its inception, reality TV has served as a microcosm of larger societal conversations, particularly those surrounding the taboo and the stigmatized. So, it’s no surprise that mental health found itself at the center of the Summer House season 10 reunion. In the midst of breakup drama, friendship blowouts and questionable ear stuff, Prozac and beta-blockers managed to steal the spotlight. Or at the very least, share it.
From the social politics of interracial friendships to the real-world implications of girl code, the cast dug into the meat of the drama that sent the show into one of its most-viewed seasons in its ten-year history. But there was one hidden cast member that really stole the show: Prozac. In general, the Summer House cast, which consists of 13 main cast members who drive out to a shared summer house in the Hamptons every weekend for the summer, has been very open about their mental health.
Series’ standout Ciara Miller has been especially open about her battle with anxiety and emotional fatigue, as well as the role Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) have played in helping her get back to living life to the fullest. This candidness presents a notable contrast to the way mental health and medications are discussed within the Black community.
“There’s this idea within our communities that if you’re depressed, there’s some spiritual corruption going on or you’re just not strong. There’s also the societal pressure, especially for Black women, to be strong. So, there’s just a lot going on that prevents us from getting treatment, although we need it, because we have the highest rates of trauma in any community, and trauma and depression travel together,” said Dr. Judith Joseph, a board-certified psychiatrist, researcher and therapist.
Summer House and Mental Health
Within the Bravo-sphere, Summer House is regarded as one of the more emotionally intelligent franchises on the network. Sure, the cast has its drama, but they also have frequent in-depth conversations regarding topics like race, addiction, and grief. As such, the conversations surrounding mental health on the show offer a refreshing reprieve to the status quo. In part two of the three-part Summer House season 10 reunion, cast newbie KJ Dillard got open and honest about his battle with anxiety, depression, self-harm and his Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) diagnosis. As the only Black man on the show, his candor has been a brave and refreshing addition to the Bravo universe as a whole.
Typically, in scandals like the one currently happening between Amanda Batula, West Wilson and Ciara Miller, the mental health of white women is prioritized over their Black counterparts, who are expected to be “strong” and rise above the disrespect and public humiliation. Rather than bend the knee, Ciara Miller has been speaking her peace without caving to external pressures to put Batula’s needs above her own, a decision only bolstered by her decision to put her mental health first.
During press for the season, Ciara Miller described “Prozac” as the thing that “made all the difference” in helping her navigate the pressures of reality TV, an especially daunting task amongst a predominantly white cast with varying levels of understanding regarding her experience as a Black woman.
This type of openness is a valiant declaration by any standard. Add on the implications that come with being Black on a platform as big as Bravo’s, with as large a white audience as theirs, and the magnitude of Miller and Dillard’s decisions doubles. It is this exact kind of transparency that makes what KJ and Ciara are doing so remarkable, explains Dr. Joseph, who says that while physician advice is crucial, it’s often the testimonies of others that get the ball rolling for broader mental health conversations, especially within marginalized communities that have been systemically excluded from this discourse.
“Stories connect. Yes, we need experts, but we also need advocates. We also need patients,” Dr. Joseph said. “When people who have these platforms talk about mental health, it just reaches so many more people, and the stories really matter.”
What are SSRIs?
So what exactly are SSRIs, and what do they do?
“SSRIs are a class of antidepressants, and they work in different ways,” Dr. Joseph told EBONY. “The brain has chemicals called neurotransmitters. These neurotransmitters allow brain cells to communicate to function, and Serotonin is one of them,” explains Dr. Joseph. Serotonin is highly associated with depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric conditions, and it is thought to play a key role in the treatment of depression. The brain has a process for picking up Serotonin and recycling it, or “uptaking” it. SSRIs prevent these brain cells from picking up the Serotonin that was released. Why is that important? “Well, if you stop Serotonin from being picked up again, then more of it is available in the brain’s environment to be used, which means that you’re essentially raising the levels of Serotonin in the brain environment, and this may help ease the symptoms of depression and anxiety,” Dr. Joseph said.
She notes that SSRIs are not the only type of antidepressant, but they’re one of the most common ones, because they’re safe and effective. Prozac, the SSRI Miller uses, is just one version of the many SSRIs out there. “Prozac is one of the oldest SSRIs. There are other SSRIs like Lexapro, Zoloft, Citalopram or Seroxat. They’re all a bit different in terms of their chemical structure and those small modifications allow Serotonin to be prevented from being reuptaken in the brain,” Dr. Joseph told EBONY.
How These Conversations Shape the Narrative
Being medicated is still a relatively taboo conversation, especially within Black spaces. From misinformation to religion-based aversions, the barriers to entry are steep when it comes to addressing Black mental health.
“A lot of Black people, whether they’re African American or from other parts, like the Caribbean or Africa, have a strong religious component that demonizes mental health. There’s this thought that if we can go to church, we can pray some of these things away, and that mental health disorders are spiritual events and not necessarily medical conditions that can be treated,” said Dr. Lisa Gondo, a second-year psychiatry resident trainee in Detroit, Michigan.
This is obviously a deeply layered and nuanced issue that goes back centuries, but Dr. Gondo says current conversations like the ones taking place on Summer House are a step toward a more emotionally cognizant future.
“Having representation from people who have that larger platform and seeing that these things are not just personal weaknesses,” says Dr. Gondo. This openness allows people to find community in this process instead of isolation, a common sequitur. Through shows like Summer House, people can “see that they’re not the only one going through this,” says Dr. Gondo, adding that a lot of mental health disorders create a tendency to isolate and make people think they’re the only one experiencing these things, when the truth is, many people are going through the same thing, says Dr. Gondo.
Black Mental Health: Then and Now
Another reason mental health is such a fraught topic within the Black community can be traced back to centuries of medical mistrust that started with slavery and has carried on into the present day.
“There’s a longstanding history of exploitation, as well as systemic inequalities contributing to the stigmas surrounding mental health. Racism doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It also exists within medicine. If we look back, for example, at Tuskegee and the experimentation using Black people without consent and medical ethics as a whole, there are many years of trauma, intergenerational, medical mistrust for good and just reason,” Dr. Gonda said.
These systems of medical racism persist to this day. “If we look at things like maternal mortality rates, Black women are dying at disproportionate rates in comparison to other groups of women in this country. The reason for that is tied back to systemic inequality,” says Dr. Gonda adding that this naturally puts Black people on the defense when it comes to what they view as “optional” medical intervention, especially as it relates to prescription drugs.
Moreover, there’s also a lot of misinformation that has increased general skepticism regarding antidepressants as a whole.
“RFK just put out a statement to get Americans off of SSRIs. It’s like, no, these people don’t understand the way these medications work. Do not take advice from people who have never treated patients for depression,” Dr. Joseph said.
While intergenerational trauma or misinformation from high-ranking officials is not something that can be fixed in a single episode of a buzzy reality TV show, these conversations can help shift the narrative regarding Black people and mental health at large, says Dr. Gonda. “Having these conversations where we can be a little bit more casual about (SSRIs), people can start to feel a sense of normalcy talking about their felings that might allow other people to reach out and get help a little bit sooner.”