10 Celebrity Moms Who Bravely Opened up About Their Postpartum Depression
(Photo: Twitter / @Fox411) Having a baby undoubtedly changes your life forever, in pretty much all [...]
Brooke Shields
Shields' battle with postpartum depression made headlines years ago after notorious Scientologist Tom Cruise criticized Shields for taking medication to treat the illness.
In fact, Shield's struggle was so intense that she wrote an entire memoir about the experience.
In Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postparum Depression, she wrote, "Having it does not mean you are not a good mother or that you are crazy. Above all, it does not mean that you don't love your child."
prevnextCourteney Cox
Cox's depression didn't appear until six months after her daughter Coco was born.
"I couldn't sleep. My heart was racing. And I got really depressed," Cox said. "I went to the doctor and found out my hormones had been pummeled."
prevnextAlanis Morisette
"I had postpartum depression pretty intensely when Ever was born," Morissette said in an Oprah special. "I woke up underwater every day and [felt] that tar was being poured all over me, and I just didn't want to be alive."
prevnextGwyneth Paltrow
On her own website, Paltrow described the five months after her son Moses was born as "one of the darkest and most painfully debilitating chapters of my life," adding that she didn't recognize it as postpartum depression until later.
prevnextHayden Panettiere
"The postpartum depression I have been experiencing has impacted every aspect of my life," Panettiere revealed in a tweet to fans. "Rather than stay stuck due to unhealthy coping mechanisms I have chosen to take time to reflect holistically on my health and life."
The Nashville star underwent two stints in treatment for the illness after the birth of her daughter. Her character Juliette Barnes faced a similar struggle on the hit series.
prevnextLisa Rinna
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star opened up about her health struggle in an interview with Dr. Drew Pinsky. She revealed she felt "hopeless," "lost" and "worthless" after her first child was born.
"I suffered silently, and I don't want any woman to have to do that again," she said.
prevnextKendra Wilkinson
"At the time I was doing whatever I could for the baby, but I lost myself and it was really frustrating," Wilkinson told PEOPLE of the aftermath of birthing son Hank.
"It got pretty bad, [but] not to the point where I would harm my family. I was a great mom and did what I needed to, but I was definitely very depressed," she said.
prevnextDrew Barrymore
Barrymore didn't experience postpartum depression with her first child, Olive, but developed it after daughter Frankie was born.
"...I didn't understand it because I was like, 'I feel great!' The second time, I was like, 'Oh, whoa. I see what people talk about now. I understand,' " she said.
prevnextBryce Dallas Howard
"I seemed to be suffering emotional amnesia. I couldn't genuinely cry, or laugh, or be moved by anything," Howard recalled in an essay for Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop.
"Postpartum depression is hard to describe — the way the body and mind and spirit fracture and crumble in the wake of what most believe should be a celebratory time," she added.
prevnextChrissy Teigen
The sweet mama of Luna is well known for being goofy and fun-loving, in addition to being the queen of sassy social media clapbacks. Her penchant for lightheartedness made her honesty about her struggle with postpartum depression all the more meaningful.
"Most days were spent on the exact same spot on the couch and rarely would I muster up the energy to make it upstairs for bed. There was a lot of spontaneous crying," she confessed in a personal essay she wrote for Glamour.
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