Sadie Robertson Huff on Mental Health: ‘Go to God’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Sadie Robertson Huff recently spoke on her “WHOA That’s Good” podcast about the heavy but important topic of mental health.
She began by explaining that May is Mental Health Awareness Month and shared some statistics about mental health.
“In any given year, one in five Americans will be diagnosed with a mental illness,” she said. “So, 44 million people [in] any year can be diagnosed with a mental illness. There’s more than 200 classified forms of mental illness, which I thought was really fascinating because I, you know, off the top of my head [can] only think of a couple.”
Huff also encouraged her listeners to turn to God when they struggle mentally. “God is like anchor point of mental health. If you need help, go to God, the one that created the mind, and receive his peace, Receive his joy. Receive his love.”
For the episode, she was joined by Tay Lautner, who started her own podcast and foundation called “The Lemon’s Foundation” which centers around helping those who struggle with mental illness.
Lautner shared the best mental health advice she’s been given.
“It’s really good to, like, feel your emotions,” she said. “If you’re going through a hard time, like, be sad, cry it out. Feel those emotions, but it’s important that we don’t get stuck, and we don’t live in those, that we don’t let those define us.”
Lautner explained how she struggled with her own mental health issues amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which led her to quit her job as a nurse.
Huff also opened up about her struggle with postpartum anxiety after the birth of her daughter Honey.
“It was actually after I had Honey,” the DUCK DYNASTY star revealed. “This was more of like the postpartum anxiety phase. And I would say, like, the beginning signs of me heading towards this deeper postpartum anxiety that led me to like, full-on burn out, don’t want to do anything, want to quit everything that I’m doing place. The beginning, it was like the normal things that give me excitement in life were like making me so anxious, and I didn’t want to do them.”
She explained how she got the help she needed and saw improvement.
“This life coach type person…he just helped me get my life on track,” she said. “I know that might not be practical for everyone, maybe it’s a counselor setting — maybe it’s a doctor, whatever that looks like — but just get the help you need so that you don’t stay there.”
“No matter what you’re experiencing, talk it out with somebody,” she said previously. “Those thoughts are not meant to just live with you and you alone. When you walk it out, when you talk it out, you can actually get, as (my doctor) told me, through the pain. Not just sitting in the pain, you get to get through it.”
Lautner, wife of TWILIGHT star Taylor Lautner, likewise encourages people to work through their mental health struggles with others.
“When life gives you lemons, what do you do with them? The past couple years it has felt like life has been not handing out lemons, but instead forcefully throwing them one after another. Learning how to care for myself, mentally and physically, has been a challenge that I am still navigating through today,” she said on her website. “Join me on my journey of learning how to put my mental health and wellness first.”
If you or someone you know is struggling, help is available. Call 988 any time to reach the suicide and crisis hotline and get the help you need.
Movieguide® previously reported on Lautner:
Tay Lautner recently shared how God led her to create her mental health organization, The Lemons Foundation.
“I think, by learning about mental health, I think the biggest thing I’ve learned over the years is, we’re so quick to ask questions like ‘Why didn’t they ask for help? What could I have done?’” Lautner said while appearing on “The Karen Kingsbury Show” podcast. “The complexity of mental health is something we’ve only barely scratched the surface of…it was just a lot of—and still is a lot of—learning the complexities of mental health.”
Lautner stressed the importance of speaking with a counselor to help you figure out how to handle mental health struggles, adding, “You’ve got to have your toolbox handy, and the toolbox needs to be filled with all the things you need when something breaks.”
She also spoke about how The Lemons Foundation began.
“The whole reason of the whole foundation…I knew so many people were struggling,” she said. “God talks to me in my sleep, and I come up with all of these things in my sleep and I wake up and I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m going to do this!’ I woke up one morning and I was like, “Hon, I think I have to start a nonprofit.’’