Chrissy Teigen couldn’t control postnatal depression
Los Angeles, March 8 (IANS) Model and TV presenter Chrissy Teigen has opened up for the first time about her postnatal depression following the birth of her daughter Luna. She says she couldn’t control the problem.
Teigen, who is married to singer John Legend, said she discovered she had postnatal depression in December 2016 and had decided to speak out it now in order to let people know that the condition, also called postpartum depression, “can happen to anybody”, reports theguardian.com.
She had a daughter last year.
In an open letter in US Glamour magazine, Teigen said: “I’ll just say it: I have post partum depression. So much love to Glamour magazine for letting me share something that was eating me up inside for months and months.
“One of the most amazing things about social media is the ability to interact candidly with friends and fans and it felt so weird knowing what I was going through but not really feeling like it was the right place to speak on it.”
She said that for long periods of time, she was unable to leave the house, shutting herself away in the dark and barely moving from “the exact same spot” all day.
It was her return to work on TV show “Lip Sync Battle” four months after giving birth to Luna that made her realise she was “different than before”.
Teigen wrote: “I had everything I needed to be happy. And yet, for much of the last year, I felt unhappy. What basically everyone around me — but me — knew up until December was this: I have postpartum depression.
“How can I feel this way when everything is so great? I’ve had a hard time coming to terms with that, and I hesitated to even talk about this, as everything becomes such a ‘thing’.”
Teigen said she found it difficult to speak about her postnatal depression because she felt “selfish, icky and weird” to admit she was struggling.
“I have a great life. I have all the help I could need: John, my mother (who lives with us), a nanny.
“But postpartum does not discriminate. I couldn’t control it. And that’s part of the reason it took me so long to speak up: I felt selfish, icky, and weird saying aloud that I’m struggling. Sometimes I still do.”