Gwyneth Paltrow first opened up about her postpartum depression in 2011. Speaking with Good Housekeeping, the actress revealed that after the 2006 birth of her son, Moses, she felt “like a zombie” and “couldn’t connect.” Eventually, Paltrow, 46, was diagnosed with PPD — and she overcame the condition without any medication.
“A doctor tried to put me on antidepressants and I thought, if I need them, yes, I’ll come back to it,” Paltrow explained on the Wednesday, September 26, episode of her goop Podcast. The Oscar winner noted that drugs are “lifesavers for certain people for sure” but explained she had success with alternative therapies.
“I started exercising again, and I stopped drinking alcohol and I gave myself a period of regeneration and I slept more,” the Goop CEO said. “I really broke out of it.”
Paltrow, who shares Moses, 12, and Apple, 14, with her ex-husband Chris Martin, was shocked by her body’s reaction to giving birth the second time. “I was so euphoric when Apple was born, and I assumed it would happen with Mosey and it just . . . it took a while,” she recalled in another goop Podcast that aired in April. “I really went into a dark place.”
Postpartum depression affects 1 in 8 women, according to Dr. Diane Sanford, author of Life Will Never Be the Same: The Real Mom’s Postpartum Survival Guide. “The baby blues is time-limited and hormonally-driven and eases int he first two to four weeks,” Dr. Sanford previously told Us Weekly. “Postpartum gets worse over time and symptoms increase in frequency and severity. If you don’t fully recover from it, you’re more at risk for subsequent episodes of anxiety and depression.”
