Chrissy Teigen Opens up About Motherhood and the Aftermath From Her Battle With Postpartum Depression

One of Chrissy Teigen‘s most endearing qualities is her ability to tell it like it is: the good and the bad.

In a new interview with Refinery29, the model opens up about motherhood and the aftermath of her battle with postpartum depression.

“Just know that there’s a light on the other side,” Teigen, 31, says of the advice she gives to mothers going through a similar experience. “When I was in the midst of everything, I could never imagine myself on the other side of it. Now, I’m able to look at September, October, November, December, and shake my head at how dark and crazy of a period it was.”

Teigen added, “Unfortunately, you can only really do that when you’re out of it. There’s no other way to explain it. And there’s no better feeling than being out of it.”

Even though Teigen may be past the most difficult part of the experience, it doesn’t mean the depression doesn’t occasionally return.

MORE: Chrissy Teigen Reveals Painful Battle with Postpartum Depression in Open Letter

“You have your good and bad days. I just had a bad day a couple days ago,” she explains. “But the bad days do not outweigh the good days anymore. Just when you think it’s really, really bad, it’s going to get better.”

“So hopefully, if you’re going through something tough you can find some peace in knowing that,” Teigen says.

Since welcoming her daughter Luna, who turns one on Friday, Teigen has embraced parenthood, but it hasn’t completely redefined her. “You naturally change because there’s something else that consumes your mind at all times and I don’t think you can help that,” she says.

The TV personality is lucky enough to have her mother live with her to lend her support. “It’s an incredible experience that I’m able to have, because I can maintain this balance of still having a life, and being a mother, and being a mother with a life, and my life being a mother,” she says.

She continued, “And even if you don’t have a live-in mom, if you aren’t afraid to lean on other people when you need it, I don’t think you have to feel like you have to give everything up. But it does change you, and that’s why I think you have to be completely ready.”

Teigen says she is in a “much better place” and feels “like everything’s coming together really well right now.”

She is currently working on her follow-up cookbook to her 2016 Cravings, as well as preparing to go on tour with her husband John Legend and daughter Luna.

[H/T Instagram / @chrissyteigen]

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