‘Extreme Makeover’ star visited OKC

Paige Hemmis changes lives on a weekly basis. On “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” she and the rest of the show’s cast make a lasting impression on families across the country by rebuilding their homes. Hers is a high-profile life and most people are familiar with the impact the show has on the lives of those it touches.

Wearing her signature pink hard hat on the show, Hemmis seems like a picture of spunky happiness. She tears up often on camera but that’s to be expected, considering the dramatic problems the families she helps on the show face.

But few people realize that Hemmis also helps people change their lives from the inside out.

Tuesday, Hemmis shared her story of battling depression with an Oklahoma City audience at a “Blueprint for Hope” event.

An estimated 33 to 35 million U.S. adults are likely to experience depression at some point during their lifetime.  According to a 2007 study by Mental Health of America, more than 17 percent of people living in Oklahoma experience at least one major depressive episode a year.

Like many people, when Hemmis realized she had a problem, she didn’t have a name for it. It started around the time she started the show but she wouldn’t have a diagnosis until well into the show’s second season.

“I wasn’t going out, I was kind of withdrawing. The things I normally like to do, I wasn’t doing,” She was tired all the time and couldn’t sleep. She just didn’t feel like herself.

It seemed the only thing she really wanted to do was to eat, she said.

“When you’re not sleeping, there’s a whole lot of extra time to eat,” she said. She would stay up late munching on snacks in bed. Then, she would wake up early, sleepless, and eat some more food. All the excessive eating caused Hemmis to gain 25 pounds in short order.

She also found herself on the road 10 months out of the year, traveling for the show.

“I would wake up in the middle of the night and not know where I am, what city I’m in, what hotel I’m in,” she said. “I was feeling more and more overwhelmed.”

She went to her doctor thinking that her problems stemmed from traveling so much and her lack of sleep.

“I felt very guilty for admitting that anything was wrong with me. Because the families that we help as part of the show, they’ve gone through these horrible stories and here I am, I’ve got a good job, a good family, a good life,” Hemmis said.

When the doctor told her she was battling depression, she was shocked.

“At first I was like, ‘What? No! I’m happy, see my smile?’” he recalled. “But part of me was really relieved because I was not alone and there are other people going through this and I had a name for what I was going through.”

Though she didn’t have suicidal thoughts, Hemmis realized that if her condition went untreated, it would likely lead to them.

So, working with her doctor, she devised a “blueprint” for how they would treat her depression. It included talk therapy, antidepressants, eating better and exercising.

“It’s like a blueprint for a house,” Hemmis said. “Drywall, wood plumbing …That’s kind of how it is with our lives. We each have our own blueprint.”

Hemmis teamed up with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) and Dr. Jesse H. Wright to form “Blueprint for Hope,” a campaign to inspire people to speak with a health care professional about their depression symptoms and raise awareness of the importance of working with a health care professional to build a personalized “blueprint,” or plan, for managing their illness.

Today, Hemmis is happy and healthy and hopes that by sharing her story, she’ll inspire others to focus on their own “Blueprint for Hope.” For more information about the campaign, go online to www.blueprintforhope.com.

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