When Reese Witherspoon revealed the emotional toll of postpartum depression

Reese Witherspoon, the Oscar-winning actress for her role Elle Woods in Legally Bond and June Carter Cash in Walk the Line, talked about how she dealt with postpartum, when was warned by her mother that mental health could be genetic for her.

The 50-year old actress is the mother to two children, daughter Ava Phillipe, and son Deacon Phillipe, with her ex husband Ryan Phillipe. She also has another son, Tennessee James Toth with her ex husband Jim Toth as reported by People.

Witherspoon has gone through depression in her teenage years and thought it to be genetic as her mother had depression too.

"It was really bad," Witherspoon told Harper’s Bazaar in their Dec-Jan issue.

"In the first six months, I was simultaneously happy and depressed. I just cried all the time, I was up all night, I was exhausted.”

In one of the later episodes of Jameela Jamil’s podcast, the “Little Fires Everywhere Actress”, said that she started therapy when she was 16 years old as reported by ABC news.

"My brain is like a hamster on a wheel and it won't come off". "I've been managing it my entire life.”

Each of Witherspoon’s son’s birth gave her different levels of postpartum depression.

"After each child I had a different experience," the Oscar winner noted. "One kid I had kind of a mild postpartum. One kid I had severe postpartum, where I had to take pretty heavy medication because I just wasn't thinking straight at all, and then I had one kid where I had no postpartum at all.”

The actress recalls how she wasn't prepared for any of her hormone fluctuations after that she gave birth. The experience was very new to her and she couldn't understand what exactly to do after that she stopped nursing after six months later.

Gradually when she opened up and reached out for help, she realized she was “completely out of control” after the birth of her first child.

“We don’t understand the kind of hormonal roller coaster that you go on when you stop nursing. No one explained that to me,” she said on the Earwolf podcast. “I was 23 years old when I had my first baby and nobody explained to me that when you wean a baby, your hormones go into the toilet. I felt more depressed than I’d ever felt in my whole life. It was scary”, as reported by People.

The conversation continued and Witherspoon mentioned that it is essential for one to “de-stigmatize” mental health and consider women seriously.

“I didn’t have the right kind of guidance or help, I just white-knuckled back,” she said, adding that she also wasn’t able to be with her mother, who worked as a pediatric nurse for 35 years and had always been open about mental health, and at the time “there wasn’t the type of communication we have now.”

What is Post Partum Depression?

UNICEF defines postpartum depression as something that usually occurs two to eight weeks after giving birth but can happen up to a year after the baby is born.

“One of the important things about postpartum depression is it's not just feeling sad,” Dr. Stuebe explains. Feelings of intense anxiety are also a common feature of postpartum depression.

Some symptoms of postpartum depression to look out for include feeling overwhelmed, persistent crying, lack of bonding with your baby and doubting your ability to care for yourself and your baby.