A mother from the Midlands has revealed how baking brownies helped silence the voices in her head and improved her mental health by 90 per cent. Rachael Vitins, 44, from Tipton, will open The Brownie Bakery & Wine Bar in Chelmsley Wood next month with her husband Dave Walker.
Rachael began baking after a worker at the cafe she ran retired, leading to an unexpected and life-changing discovery. Having struggled with mental health since her teenage years, she stressed the importance of addressing mental health in older generations and admitted it remains a taboo subject.
Speaking to BirminghamLive, she said: 'Since I was 17, I've struggled with mental health. I was brought up in an era where you sucked it up and you moved on. It was always a taboo subject, you were told you weren't depressed and it was just the blues. Help was never readily available and I always went through life dealing with it.'
She continued: 'When I had The Vintage Tearoom and Café in Wednesbury, I had a lady baking our cakes. One day she retired, so I decided to give it a go and thought it couldn't be that hard. As I baked a cake in my kitchen, it might sound psychotic, but the voices in my head stopped and I felt so good. The voices had gone, the stress had gone, and I was happy.'
Rachael tried the same with brownies and experienced the same relief. 'I can make 50 trays of brownies a day and it's the cycle which helps my mental health. For me, the biggest boost is when my products sell. I always doubt myself, but when I pack up with no products left, it's such a brilliant outlet of happiness.'
She emphasised that mental health support for older generations is often overlooked. 'I know there's an emphasis on mental health for kids, but the importance is being lost on the older generation. It's still a taboo subject for elderly people in everyday life. My dad is in his eighties and his generation taught you to suck depression up and move on. That's how I was taught too.'
Rachael hopes her story will encourage others to seek help and consider the impact of their actions on others. 'I hope sharing my journey lets people know you can get through if you're struggling. For people causing mental health problems, it hopefully shows them that they shouldn't speak and act in a certain way. I'm not expecting a great stir of trolls to go away reading this. But if one person stopped and thought about their actions, it's one less troll away from the mix.'
'My mental health hasn't 100 per cent gone, it's improved by 90 per cent, and the majority of it has all gone through baking in my kitchen.'
The Brownie Bakery & Wine Bar will open next month at Chelmsley Wood Shopping Centre, Solihull, B37 5TT.
