Alanis Morissette Reflects on Postpartum Depression

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The celebrity then wrote she is "finally realizing that that is entirely ok" and reminded her readers that "we're not alone." 2 Months After Giving Birth
by ELYSE DUPRE | Mon., Oct. 7, 2019 5:08 AM

Alanis Morissette reflected on her experience with postpartum depression and anxiety in a blog post published Sunday.

At the beginning of the piece, the mother of three, who welcomed her youngest child back in August, wrote about the "many tentacles to this experience."

"I have answers and protocols and solutions and RXs to be sure," she wrote via her personal website. "I'll share more specifics once I have my wits back about me. Hormonal. Sleep deprivation. Fogginess. Physical pain. Isolation. Anxiety. Cortisol. 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. Some around my relationship with needing. Reaching out. Seeing how great I am at setting boundaries in some areas, but how blind-spot-ty I have been with them in others. Reaching this point again where the sleeping giants of my survival strategies are being roused….the persevering. The soldiering. The show-up-no-matter-how-broken-things-feel-ing. Yes, the addictions. In my case…work addiction—over-giving. Over-serving. Over-do-ing. Over-over-ing. All lovely qualities without the 'over.' At worst: beautiful human qualities that are on 11 in a way that the body ultimately can't sustain. the #InvisibleLoad with today's normalized cluttered lifestyle taking on epic proportions."

Recognizing she had "been here before," the Grammy winner wrote about how she knows there is "another side."

"I have my eye on that prize again…even as I drag my ass through the molasses," she continued.

Morissette also shared how she had "so much more support this time" and recalled the steps she took to "set it up to win as much as I could beforehand."

"Support. Food. Friends. Sun. Bio-identical hormones and SSRI's at the ready," the "Ironic" star wrote. "Some parts of the care-prep has been a Godsend, and well-planned. 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 bloodwork levels."

After writing about her personal experience, the artist explained how "this culture is not set up to honor women properly after birth."

"I see it changing, which is so heartening…but the general way is bereft of the honoring and tenderness and attunement and village-ness that postpartum deeply warrants," she continued. "The new mom, the new parent(s) is creating the foundation for the circumventing of so much of the pain and divisiveness that we see in the world. Preventatively. We are on the ground floor of creating secure attachment. From which ALL other contributions to the world of relationships, service, politics, authentic self-expression, ‘success' and LOVE are borne. THIS is the epicenter. THIS is where it all begins (certainly in utero too, but more on that some other time). THIS is where the fabric of our culture, of our world, is crafted. On physical, emotional, neurobiological, chemical, spiritual, mental, existential, practical levels. Wouldn't it be cool if we treated all postpartum moms and families with this awareness and honor? Even if the treadmill of the quickening of our culture didn't change pace….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."

The celebrity then wrote she is "finally realizing that that is entirely okay and reminded her readers that "we're not alone."