Adele opens up about health struggle
In Vanity Fair’s latest cover story, Adele opens up about her struggles with postpartum depression. The ten-time Grammy winner reveals she was reluctant to speak out about her feelings and hesitated to ask for help.
While Adele never took any medication for her postpartum depression, she does admit to being “very available to depression” throughout her life.
“I’ve always been pretty melancholy. Obviously not as much in my real life as the songs are, but I have a very dark side,” she told Vanity Fair. “It started when my granddad died when I was about ten, and while I never had a suicidal thought, I have been in therapy, lots.”
Other celebrities, such as Hayden Panettiere and Gwyneth Paltrow, have publicly shared their experiences of “the darkness” that followed the births of their children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is estimated that perinatal depression and anxiety effects one in seven mothers each year.
“As the Behavioral Health field has evolved, some still find it hard or embarrassing to talk about mental illness. This fear is more so due to a lack of knowledge,” says Cassie Reese, RN, APN with behavioral services at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Ill. “Individuals suffering from depression, anxiety or other mental illnesses must know that the first conversation may feel uncomfortable, but addressing the issue sooner rather than later is always the best option.”
Physicians stress the importance of asking for help – if any form of depression is left untreated, it could result in life-long chronic depression. Specifically, if postpartum depression and anxiety goes untreated, it has the potential to affect the child’s cognitive and behavioral development and future mental health.
To learn more about Advocate Lutheran General Hospital’s behavioral health services, which are made possible by philanthropic funding, or the Advocate Addiction Treatment Program, visit advocatehealth.com/luth-behavioralhealth.
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About the Author
Kelsey Sopchyk, health enews contributor, is a media relations coordinator at Advocate Health Care and Aurora Health Care. She earned her BA in journalism and mass communications from the University of Iowa. In her spare time, you can find Kelsey tending to her plant children, trying new sushi restaurants in Chicago and cheering on the Cubs.
Why aren’t hospitals or doctor’s offices educating mothers or soon-to-be mothers on this more aggressively?
I agree with Kelly! A soon to be mother needs to be counseled on this issue so that she is better prepared to identify it if and when it starts to appear after birth. I suffered from it and had no idea what was wrong. I wouldn’t eat and couldn’t sleep and it wasn’t until my sister took me back to my obstetrician’s office that he diagnosed it and helped me find someone to talk to that got me through it.