07/05/2026
“80% of my friends are on antidepressants or anxiety medication.”
That’s what these two young women shared with me. Calmly. Like it was normal.
And maybe that’s the most heartbreaking part of all.
Somewhere along the way, overwhelming stress, burnout, anxiety, and emotional exhaustion became a standard part of growing up.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and we want to keep passing the mic to the young women living inside this reality.
They described school life as constant fight-or-flight: “Let’s just get through this semester… then we’ll focus on health.”
Except health never comes.
One insight that stayed with me:
Mindfulness is often taught separately from real life.
Study for 8–9 hours.
Push yourself into survival mode.
Then take one hour to “de-stress.”
But what if we learned how to live, work, and study without chronically dysregulating the nervous system in the first place?
Because the body keeps the score.
Chronic stress impacts cortisol, progesterone, estrogen, sleep, mood, resilience, and emotional regulation. That’s not weakness. That’s biology asking for support.
A few things that can genuinely help:
• nervous system regulation before immediately reaching for a pill
• magnesium support like Magnesium MD from MD Prescriptives (), formulated to support the brain and nervous system
• hormone testing, especially progesterone, which is often overlooked in conversations around PMS, PCOS, anxiety, and low mood
Medication has its place. But it cannot replace the foundation.
And no young woman should have to learn that the hard way.
Share this with someone who needs to hear it today. 🤍
Dr. Sangeeta Pati MD, FACOG, ABOIM
Founder, MD Prescriptives & Take My Power Back