10 Celebrities Who Battled Postpartum Depression
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About 13 percent of women who give birth develop postpartum depression, a serious, long-lasting condition that's more than just "baby blues."
Postpartum depression can happen to anyone, even the rich and famous (and new dads too). Exhaustion, sleep deprivation, and other stressors take their toll.
These celebrity moms shared their postpartum depression with the world, despite a cultural stigma against discussing motherhood in less-than-glowing terms.
Brooke Shields
Shields put postpartum depression front and center in 2005 when she traded barbs with Tom Cruise, who had criticized her use of antidepressants after the birth of her daughter Rowan.
Shield talks frankly about her extreme, sometimes suicidal, feelings in Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression.
"If I had been diagnosed with any other disease, I would have run to get help. I would have worn it like a badge," Shields told People magazine. "I didn't at first—but finally I did fight. I survived."
Amanda Peet
"I had a fairly serious postpartum depression," the actress confessed in a 2008 article in Gotham magazine after giving birth to daughter Frankie.
"I think it was because I had a really euphoric pregnancy."
Valerie Plame Wilson
In the book Fair Game, Wilson, the world's most famous "outed" spy, talked about being a CIA operative—but also dedicated a chapter to her postpartum depression.
She described crying uncontrollably and suffering from anxiety and panic attacks during that period, according to the Wall Street Journal. She wrote: "My abilities to cope, problem solve, and adjust to new situations, abilities that had served me so well, were beyond my reach."
Courteney Cox
Cox described her experience as a delayed case of postpartum depression to USA Today.
"I went through a really hard time—not right after the baby, but when [Coco] turned 6 months. I couldn't sleep," the actress said. "My heart was racing. And I got really depressed. I went to the doctor and found out my hormones had been pummeled."
Kendra Wilkinson
Reality TV star Wilkinson talked with OK! magazine about son Hank: "After giving birth, I never brushed my hair, my teeth, or took a shower. I looked in the mirror one day and was really depressed. I thought, 'Look at me!' I had this glamorous life in LA, and now [in Indianapolis], I didn't."
Marie Osmond
In her 2001 memoir Behind the Smile: My Journey Out of Postpartum Depression, Osmond detailed her battle with depression following the birth of her son Matthew, the youngest of her eight children.
Bryce Dallas Howard
The actress talked about her postpartum depression in Gwyneth Paltrow's newsletter GOOP.
Howard cried daily, wasn't able to eat, and lashed out at her loved ones. "[My husband] would ask what he could do to help, but knowing there was nothing he could do, I screamed expletives at him, behavior he had never experienced in the seven years we had been together," she wrote.
Gwyneth Paltrow
After Paltrow gave birth to son Moses in 2006, she told Vogue U.K.: "At my lowest, I was a robot. I just didn't feel anything. I had no maternal instincts for him—it was awful. I couldn't connect, and still, when I look at pictures of him at three months old, I don't remember that time."
Carnie Wilson
A singer in the pop music group Wilson Phillips, Carnie Wilson suffered from postpartum depression following the birth of daughter Lola Sofia.
Wilson told People magazine, "I cried all day over everything."
"It's a physical feeling. I don't know how to describe it. You're overwhelmed with love and joy, then sadness and fear. You're so afraid you're going to fail this baby," she said. "What if you drop her or hurt her? She's totally dependent on you and it's scary."
Lisa Rinna
TV star Rinna suffered postpartum depression after the birth of her two daughters, and feared it would drive her to murder her family.
"I had visions of knives and guns. I made Harry (husband Harry Hamlin) hide all the sharp knives and take the gun out of the house because I had visions of killing everybody. Now how horrific is that?" she told Starpulse.com.
More from Health.com:
6 Rules for a Healthy Postpartum Slim-Down
10 Things Not to Say to Someone With Depression
12 Signs of Depression in Men
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