Brooke Shields: Surviving Depression Road
Brooke Shields—complete name Brooke Christa Shields—has mesmerized the world with the magnificence of her face for several years. Aged 38, she has been considered to have everything one could ever wish for: an ageless beauty, a noteworthy career, grand fame and fortune, a happy marriage and a beautiful baby girl. However, many of us do not know about her painful years of struggle against depression after giving birth. In an interview with Brooke Shields, she says “I began feeling uncomfortable, as if I would never again be accepted as part of this world. After having worked my whole life, here I was without a job. Walking to my car, I began to cry.”
Post-partum depression is what Shields suffered; it is a clinical depression affecting women after giving birth She and her husband Chris Henchy have a difficulty conceiving child. Thus, they have gone through various types of in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments. Unfortunately, her first pregnancy led into a miscarriage three months into conception.
In an Oprah Winfrey interview, she says, “I had to mourn it but I also didn’t want to waste any time. I thought ‘God if it happened once, it can happen again.”
She did get pregnant again and gave birth to a beautiful, healthy baby girl named Rowan Francis. However, instead of celebrating to her heart’s deepest content, Shields felt empty and wanted to end her life.
“I couldn’t hold her and I couldn’t sing to her and I couldn’t smile at her. All I wanted to do was [to] disappear and die,” she says, recalling the time of her deepest despair.
Finally, after convincing her of that she was going through a post-partum depression, her gynecologist prescribed her Paxil, an antidepressant medicine. But Shields claims she felt no instant health benefit and so she stopped taking the medicine.
She later behaved peculiarly and attempted suicide.
”The depression plus the effect of going off the drug led her to believe that she should not exist because her baby was better off without her and life was never going to better. She almost killed herself by crashing her car into a wall on the side of the freeway. She only stopped herself because Rowan was with her that moment,” narrated her physician.” The depression plus the effect of going off the drug led her to believe that she should not exist because her baby was better off without her and life was never going to better. She almost killed herself by crashing her car into a wall on the side of the freeway. She only stopped herself because Rowan was with her that moment,” recalled by her doctor.
“My baby was in the backseat and that even pissed me off. I thought, ‘she’s even ruining this for me,’” she recalls.
She then went back to her gynecologist and was told that her deteriorating state of mind was caused by her abruot drug withdrawal without doctor’s permission. So, she was back on Paxil and had gone through weekly psychotherapy.
After some time, she eventually got better. In spite of the chaotic experience she had, Shields is now ready to settle into motherhood. Shields and Henchy even had a second baby.
“I learned what was going on inside my body and my brain and I learned I wasn’t doing anything wrong to feel that way—that it was out of my control,” she shares, referring to her post-partum depression experience.
As medical experts say, early diagnosis and treatment for post-partum depression usually results in faster recovery, but it can last for more than a year if it is not treated immediately. Similar to Shield’s case, doctors usually prescribe psychotherapy, placebos and antidepressant Paxil to deal with depression. However, recent studies show that other antidepressants like Zoloft has no medical benefits compared to placebos.
References:
- ·celebitchy.com/80793/brooke_shields_on_post-partum_depression_i_was_suicidal/
- ·psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2007/05/15/brooke-shields-on-postpartum-depression/
- ·webmd.com/depression/postpartum-depression/features/brooke-shields-depression-struggle?page=4
- ·dailyrecord.co.uk/showbiz/celebrity-news/2009/11/18/brooke-shields-postnatal-depression-drove-me-to-verge-of-suicide-86908-21831052/
- ·emedicinehealth.com/postpartum_depression/article_em.htm
Love…Naturally – Part 1