A mom-of-two says she was so stressed by her wedding preparations that her brain “had enough” — and she went into psychosis.
Megan Finn, 27, had to juggle rescheduling her wedding, looking after two children and running her own nail salon from March 2020 to July 2022.
She says her weight dropped drastically from 182 to 91, she stopped sleeping and hallucinated people’s voices in her house.
During her rescheduled honeymoon on July 13, 2022, her brain “had enough” — and she started having hallucinations about her husband, production operative Jordan, 30, falling off their balcony.
On returning home to Belfast, Megan was sectioned by two police officers, and she spent nearly 10 weeks in the Acute Mental Health Inpatient Centre, Belfast.
Now, she says she feels stable — but warns it isn’t healthy to glamorize the stress of being a woman who “has it all.”
Megan, a nail technician from Belfast, said: “The reason I ended up the way I was, was because I was so stressed — being the woman who owns the business, looks after the kids and has the fairytale wedding is so glamorized.
“Preparing for our wedding was pretty plain sailing at first – but when lockdown hit, there was so much we had to rearrange.
“On top of that, my husband was an essential worker — so I had to look after and homeschool two kids under 10.
“My business was struggling as we weren’t getting grants, and he was the only person bringing any money in.
“To be honest, the moment we went on our honeymoon and my brain had time to relax — I think it had just had enough, it didn’t know what to do.”
In March 2020, Megan and Jordan had been engaged for two years, and were looking forward to their wedding day on June 10, the same year.
But when lockdown hit, the couple were told by their venue they would likely have to push their celebration back indefinitely.
Megan had to postpone her photographer, band, DJ, and store her own wedding dress at home — because she feared the shop would go out of business before her big day.
“We had to change everything on our marriage license,” she said.
“As well as rearranging the hair stylist, the makeup artist and the entertainment — I had to take my wedding dress home because I was worried it would be lost forever.”
When she was able to open her salon for business, Megan began working 12 hour days without breaks – as well as trying to fit in homeschooling her children on her days off.
In the space of two years, she lost about 90 pounds, dropping four dress sizes — which friends and family put down to wedding nerves.
But by June 2022, it became clear that something more “sinister” was at play — when the mum stopped sleeping, and started having auditory hallucinations.
She added: “Leading up to my wedding, things started to become a little more sinister and concerning.
“I started talking noticeably fast, as if I was really excited.
“This was around the time I started to have real, paranoid, auditory hallucinations.
“I thought I could hear friends in the house — when nobody was there except me and my husband.”
Megan and Jordan got married on July 9, 2022 — but despite feeling like she could “relax,” her symptoms only worsened.
The pair left with their children, aged seven and nine, and Megan’s mum, barber Tanya, 57, for their ‘familymoon’ to Alcudia, Spain, on July 13.
But Tanya found herself having to look after Megan — as her hallucinations became so bad, she thought Jordan had fallen off their apartment balcony.
With one day to go before the end of the holiday, a Spanish doctor advised Megan to go home.
“My dad and sister flew over to bring me home,” she said.
“On the way from Dublin Airport to Belfast, I remember thinking my sister was an MI5 agent — and out to get me.
“We got into an altercation, which led me to being sectioned by police.”
The mom-of-two was taken to the Belfast Acute Mental Health Unit, where she was hospitalised for nine-and-a-half weeks.
Her treatment plan included taking antipsychotics once-a-day — and it took doctors three different medications to bring her out of her psychosis.
After being discharged, she was provided with a psychiatrist and community mental health nurse, who she still sees every month.
Now, she feels “stable” and on her way to becoming “herself” again — but Megan wants to warn others not to over glamorize stress.
“I’ve learnt not to push myself,” she said.
“I know my limits and my early warning signs to relapse – like not sleeping, weight loss, and spending excessive amounts of money.
“Don’t over-glamorize stress — it’s so much more important to be stable.”
