PHOTOSAlanis Morissette Reveals Ongoing Battle With Postpartum Depression
Oct. 7 2019, Published 6:19 p.m. ET
Alanis Morissette is getting honest about her struggle with postpartum depression. The musician wrote an essay on her website on October 6, which detailed her third battle with postpartum depression. The “Ironic” singer welcomed her third child in August, and still finds the condition to be “a sneaky monkey with a machete.”
“I wasn’t sure if I would have postpartum depression/anxiety this time around. Or, as I like to call it: postpartum activity. Or, also: postpartum tar-drenched trenches. There are so many tentacles to this experience,” Alanis, 45, wrote. She listed some of the symptoms she’s currently battling. “Hormonal. Sleep deprivation. Fogginess. Physical pain. Isolation. Anxiety. Cortisol.”
The “Hand In My Pocket” singer continued, “Recovery from childbirth (as beautiful and intense as mine was at home, dream birth.), integrating new angel baby with older angel babies. Marriage. All kinds of PTSD triggers. Overstimulation. This body. Attempting to crawl back to some semi-recognizable configuration.” Alanis was proactive in her preparation for the birth of her third child. However, she found the “sleeping giants” of her “survival strategies” were roused.
Alanis recognized that she had been there before, and knows that there is another side. “The other side is greater than my PPD-riddled-temporarily-adjusted-brain could have ever imagined,” she lamented. “As a mom. As an artist. As a wife. As a friend. As a collaborator. As a leader. As a boss. As an activist.”
The Jagged Little Pill hitmaker knows that even though postpartum depression as been an uphill battle, she has the support of family and friends, along with food, bio-identical hormones and SSRI’s, and well-planned care-prep.
“But for all of this preparation — PPD is still a sneaky monkey with a machete — working its way through my psyche and body and days and thoughts and blood work levels,” the “Head Over Feet” singer admitted. She also said that despite the difficulties, “I have stopped, this time, in the middle of it. Lord knows I don’t want to miss a thing…with my kids.”
Alanis concluded her honest essay with the notion of that postpartum mothers and families should be treated with "awareness and honor.” “That there might be a life raft of empathy toward the feminine life-givers who bear it all and give more than words can even begin to touch on,” Alanis wrote. “More soon. I won’t remember typing this. And I am finally realizing that that is entirely ok. So much more to write, soon. I love you. I am here. With you. We’re not alone.”
Alanis has three children with husband Mario “Souleye” Treadway: sonEver Imre, 8, daughter Onyx Solace, 3, and baby boy Winter Mercy.
