Alanis Morissette Discusses Her Intense Battle With Post-Partum Depression
Although Alanis Morissette now appears as a blissfully smiling mother in photos with cute todder Ever, the singer admits she suffered a crippling bout of post-partum depression after her son was born in late 2010.
The 38-year-old first-time mom told the Daily Mail that she knows she's predisposed to depression, but that she was shocked by the physical hurdles she faced this time. "I hadn't realized the depths to which you can ache: limbs, back, torso, head, everything hurt," she explained. "It went on for 15 months. I felt as if I was covered in tar and everything took 50 times more effort than normal."
Morissette admits the period was brutal. "I just thought it was a swampy chapter [and] if I soldiered it out, that it would go away," she tells ET Canada. "I came to realize that the longer I waited, the more intense it would become."
However, she did find that she was still able to work on her latest album, Havoc And Bright Lights, which will be released this month. "I wished I could have cried but there was no relief during that time...Amazingly, it didn't hinder the creative process and I wrote the album."
Thankfully, things are much better--as fans can see in her glowing family shots these days."I had various therapies and now I feel all light and springy," she notes. "Thankfully, [the depression] didn't interfere with the bond with my son, although I think that has strengthened since I got better in April."
Morissette relates that her relationship with her rapper husband Mario "MC Souleye" Treadway--whom she married just six months before Ever's birth--is improving daily as well. "It has been a challenge, especially with the postnatal depression," she admits. However, she says she's confident they are on the right track.
The singer hopes to help other mothers by sharing her story. "I think if there is any goal in me talking about it, it would be to eradicate the shame around it," she tells ET Canada. "It's just what happens sometimes and, for me, I just waited way too long to reach out for help."
Morissette is currently on tour in the U.S. and South America. You can keep up with her schedule here.
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