Reese Witherspoon opens up about postpartum depression struggle

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Reese Witherspoon spoke candidly about her struggles with mental health and her past issues with postpartum depression during a recent podcast interview.

The "Little Fires Everywhere" actress appeared on former "The Good Place" actress Jameela Jamil’s "I Weigh" podcast, where the two women opened up about their experience with seeking treatment for their mental health issues and the stigma that women often face when it comes to getting help. 

Witherspoon revealed that she's been in therapy since she was 16 years old.

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"I definitely had anxiety, my anxiety manifests as depression so I would get really depressed. My brain is like a hamster on a wheel and it won’t come off," the 44-year-old actress revealed. "I’ve been managing it my entire life."

Witherspoon, who shares daughter Ava, 20, and Deacon, 16, with ex Ryan Phillipe as well as son Tennessee, 7, with husband Jim Toth, noted that her biggest battle with mental health came after having her kids.

Reese Witherspoon spoke candidly about her past battles with postpartum depression. (Karwai Tang/Getty Images)

"I’ve had three kids. After each child, I had a different experience. One kid I had kind of mild postpartum, and one kid I had severe postpartum where I had to take pretty heavy medication because I just wasn’t thinking straight at all," she explained. "And then I had one kid where I had no postpartum at all." 

The star went on to explain that, despite the strides the world has taken to destigmatize mental health issues and postpartum depression, there’s still not enough research being done about what happens to women’s bodies hormonally during and after pregnancy.

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"I do think hormones are so understudied and not understood. I kept reaching out to my doctors for answers, but there just isn’t enough research about what happens to women’s bodies and the hormonal shifts that we have just aren’t taken as seriously as I think they should be," she explained. "So I have deep compassion for women that are going through that." 

Reese Witherspoon noted that she battled postpartum depression after having two of her three kids. (Reuters)

She added: "We don’t understand the kind of hormonal roller coaster that you go on when you stop nursing. No one explained that to me. I was 23 years old when I had my first baby and no one explained to me that when you wean a baby, your hormones go into the toilet. I felt more depressed than I’d ever felt in my whole life. It was scary."

The star concluded by noting that she’s lucky to have made it through given the limited guidance she had at the time, noting she "white-knuckled" back.

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"I have deep compassion for women who are going through that," she said. "Postpartum is very real."