Brooke Shields: “Postnatal depression drove me to verge of suicide”
Actress recalls nearly deliberately crashing her car while suffering from PND
After Hollywood star Brooke Shields gave birth to her first daughter, Rowan, after seven IVF attempts, she was hit with a serious bout of postnatal depression, which led her to contemplate attempting suicide.
“I finally had a beautiful baby girl and I couldn’t look at her. I couldn’t hold her and I couldn’t sing to her or smile…All I wanted to do was disappear and die,” Brooke said at the Hope for Depression Research Foundation, where she was collecting an award.
The 44-year-old actress stopped taking her medication as she thought she didn’t need it, which then led to an almost fatal incident. “That was the week I almost did not resist driving my car straight into a wall on the side of the freeway. My baby was in the back seat and that even p***ed me off because I thought she was ruining this for me.”
Thankfully a friend managed to talk her out of it and she went on to recover and now has another daughter Grier, 3, with husband Chris Henchy.
If you’re worried about postnatal depression and want to seek advice and guidance, check out our PND check list.
More like this
Authors
How NatPat's wellness patches may help your family
NatPat's range of wellness patches and stickers aim to tackle everything from allergies to lack of focus. We take a closer look at the range.