A recent Surgeon General Advisory reported that the mental health epidemic in the United States has affected more than 1 in 5 adults and more than 1 in 3 young adults with some mental illness. This crisis has brought the issue to the forefront for many people, especially those personally affected.
One of those people is mental health blogger Tay Dome Lautner, wife of the “Twilight” saga star Taylor Lautner. She told Sadie Robertson Huff on her “Whoa That’s Good” podcast, “I lost a good friend. He had bipolar disorder, and he took his life like five years ago; a lot of my family members have struggled with addiction, and I’ve always just kind of been surrounded by it but never really experienced it on my own.”
Lautner discussed her struggles with anxiety and PTSD after her time as a new nurse during the COVID pandemic. Many healthcare workers were overwhelmed due to the crisis leaving hospitals short-staffed. She recalled, “So here I am, taking care of five patients the first time on my own, like four would have been plenty. And I remember just like crying that first night because when you go into one room, you got to put the gown on. You have your one mask on; you have to put another mask over you, have to put your goggles, on the shield on, booties on, double glove, and then you go in, and then you go out, and then you take it off, and then you re-put it all back on to go into the next room.”
Lautner said she realized how much that season in her life affected her when she would have lapses in her memory. For example, there was a time when her husband asked if she wanted to go to a specific restaurant they’d been to multiple times. She recalled, “Taylor had texted me, and he was like, ‘Hey, do you want to go to this restaurant for dinner?’ And I’m looking at the name. And I’m like, I know I’ve been here, I can’t remember where it is, who I’ve been with. I could literally remember going. I know I’ve been there but can’t remember going there.”
She said her health has improved, but she still struggles with the effects of PTSD, which she admits can be discouraging, but she learned to “turn it into motivation.” Eventually, she left the hospital where she was working. However, she knew she still wanted to do something that helped people, so she started her website Lemons by Tay, which tackles mental health issues with various guests, including her husband, Taylor.
She said, “I definitely feel like God speaks to me when I sleep and I wake up, and I have all these ideas. Well, that’s how I started my nonprofit. I love that God speaks to you in the night, and you wake up and just go with it. And that’s what a lot of life is when you see people starting these crazy things,” Huff told Lautner. “A lot of it is just God just spurring their heart to do it, and their willingness to say yes.”
The influencer also shared some advice when faced with moments of anxiety on Robertson’s podcast. “I just think it’s so important that we find an outlet whether it be talking with someone, whether it be walking, reading a book, going to get a facial, going to get a massage, something that we’re able to just kind of like take a moment and not turn our brain off but think through things,” she said.