Breaking The Silence: 6 Celeb Moms (& 1 Dad) Open Up About Postpartum Depression

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Postpartum depression is a form of clinical depression which can affect up to 25% of women, and less frequently men, after childbirth. Some of our favorite Hollywood moms are breaking the silence on the once taboo topic and shattering myths and the stigma around PPD. Read on about how stars such as Academy Award-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow felt like a "robot" at her lowest point, how Brooke Shields "couldn't smile" at her newborn daughter and how Bryce Dallas Howard "didn't expect" to go through PPD being a "total optimist" in her everyday life.

• Brooke Shields:

One of the first celebrities to open up about her struggle with postpartum depression was Brooke Shields. The 45-year-old mother of two suffered a miscarriage and seven in-vitro fertilization attempts before giving birth to her first daughter Rowan in 2003 with her husband, TV writer Chris Henchy.

I finally had a healthy beautiful baby girl and I couldn't look at her," she said of the depression she felt after having her first child. "I couldn't hold her and I couldn't sing to her and I couldn't smile at her ... All I wanted to do was disappear and die."

The brave mother-of-two went on to say that in her deepest moments of despair, the disease led her to believe suicidal thoughts,

I should not exist. The baby would be better off without me," she once thought. "Life was never going to get better – so I better just go." She also opened up about going off her prescribed medication at one point, thinking she didn't need them. "That was the week I almost did not resist driving my car straight into a wall on the side of the freeway," she told the crowd. "My baby was in the back seat and that even pissed me off because I thought she's even ruining this for me. I just wanted to drive into the wall and my friend stayed on the phone with me and made me safely get home."

Brooke was eventually diagnosed with a chemical imbalance. "I learned what was going on inside my body and what was going on inside my brain," she shared. "I learned I wasn't doing anything wrong to feel that way. That it was actually out of my control." Looking back, Brooke said, "If I had been diagnosed with any other disease, I would have run to get help. I would have worn it like a badge ... I didn't at first – but finally I did fight. I survived."

• Gwyneth Paltrow:

Academy Award-winning actress and mom-of-two Gwyneth Paltrow has opened up about the "awful" postpartum depression she experienced after the birth of her son Moses in 2006.

"At my lowest, I was a robot. I just didn't feel anything," she recalls. "I had no maternal feelings for him – it was awful. I had no thoughts of harming him, thank God, but I couldn't connect, and still, when I look pictures of him at three months old, I don't remember that time." She added, “I just didn’t know what was wrong with me…I felt really out of my body. I felt really disconnected. I felt really down; I felt pessimistic.” She admitted that denial was a factor. "My problem was that I never acknowledged anything was wrong. I just carried on as normal, and I just felt crazy. It was Chris, actually, who said out loud that something was wrong. And that was such a relief when he did because it was confirmation that it wasn't just me."

Gwyneth later opened up even more about her experience with PPD.

When my son, Moses, came into the world in 2006, I expected to have another period of euphoria following his birth, much the way I had when my daughter was born two years earlier. Instead I was confronted with one of the darkest and most painfully debilitating chapters of my life. For about five months I had, what I can see in hindsight as postnatal depression, and since that time, I have wanted to know more about it. Not only from a hormonal and scientific standpoint, and why so many of us experience it, but from the perspective of other women who have gone through it."

• Bryce Dallas Howard:

Bryce Dallas Howard also bravely came forward about her battle with postpartum depression following the birth of her first child, Theo, in 2007.

It’s brutal. I’m a total optimist and it was shocking to face that; I didn’t expect that at all,” the mother of one said. “At first I called it postpartum denial because you’re like, ‘I just feel like a zombie,’ and then it gets worse and worse.”

The Twilight actress later went on to write about her struggles with PPD:

It is strange for me to recall what I was like at that time. I seemed to be suffering emotional amnesia. I couldn’t genuinely cry, or laugh, or be moved by anything. For the sake of those around me, including my son, I pretended, but when I began showering again in the second week, I let loose in the privacy of the bathroom, water flowing over me as I heaved uncontrollable sobs."

She went on to say that her experience with PPD became a powerful experience that shaped her,

Do I wish I had never endured post-partum depression? Absolutely. But to deny the experience is to deny who I am. I still mourn the loss of what could have been, but I also feel deep gratitude for those who stood by me, for the lesson that we must never be afraid to ask for help, and for the feeling of summer that still remains."

• Kendra Wilkinson:

Kendra Wilkinson and her husband Hank Baskett welcomed their first child, Hank IV, on December 11, 2009. The 25-year-old new mom said that she had a hard time after Hank's birth.

After giving birth, I never brushed my hair, my teeth, or took a shower," Kendra said. "I looked in the mirror one day and was really depressed. I thought, “Look at me!” I had this glamorous life in L.A., and now [in Indianapolis] I didn’t."

• Gena Lee Nolin:

Baywatch babe Gena Lee Nolin recently blogged for Celebrity Baby Scoop regarding her experience with PPD after all three of her pregnancies:

I've recently recovered from my last bout of postpartum depression. I sadly went through it with all three and just now decided to talk about it with a book I'm currently writing. It's time us mommies let this scary illness out of the bag without shame or embarrassment. I find the more I share, the more cases I see and at the end of the day we have more in common than you think."

She later went on to say that PPD was the biggest struggle of her life,

I want you to know getting over PPD was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I call it the real success of my life, because at the time I was in such a horrible state, that I seriously didn't know how to live or feel. It was impossible for me to do anything without getting the proper help I needed, which is why I'm saying --- Get help! The best advice I can give and something I personally did was call my OBGYN. They will point you in the right direction and most likely have you come in to discuss medications or other directions you may want to take. This is a serious illness, so please for you, your loved ones & me... Reach out!"

• Amanda Peet:

Amanda Peet opened up about her struggle with postpartum depression after the birth of her first daughter, Frankie, in 2007,

[After I gave birth] I had a fairly serious postpartum depression. I think it was because I had a really euphoric pregnancy. I was like a princess and I was just euphoric and productive and I felt really sexy. But it all came crashing down the second she was born. And I was sleep-deprived beyond belief."

• Laurence Fox:

Recent reports suggest that men can experience forms of PPD after welcoming a baby as well. Celeb dad Laurence Fox opened up about his tough transition into fatherhood after welcoming his firstborn son, Winston, in 2008 with his wife Billie Piper.

I definitely went through really odd feelings, really animal ones such as ‘Do I even want this baby?’” Laurence revealed. “I was like that for about two weeks after he was born. At one point I wanted to go and set fire to all my possessions. Very odd.”

As for why more dads don't admit to these feelings, Laurence said, “Well, they just go and get drunk, don’t they?”

But the new dad said that one day it “just clicked” and gushes that his “gorgeous” son is now a source of joy.

Suddenly I looked at him and thought, ‘You’re called Winston’ - I’d called him ‘it’ for ages, as in ‘it’s doing that’ - and then it just clicked. And that’s when you become - it’s awful isn’t it, when clichés are true - but that’s when you go, ‘I’m not going to ever let anything bad happen to you - ever.’”

Kudos to all of these celebrities for sharing their difficult experiences with us! Hopefully they will help shatter some of the stigma and shame regarding PPD. If you think you may be experiencing PPD, please reach out for help.