Alanis Morissette opened up about experiencing postpartum depression (PPD) after the birth of all three of her children. Looking back on the difficult period, the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter recalled having terrifying thoughts, saying, “All I could picture was death and terrible things.”
Alanis Morissette says postpartum depression left her feeling misunderstood by those around her
During her September 9 appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast, the 52-year-old singer opened up to host Alex Cooper. The Canadian singer-songwriter, who rose to fame with her 1995 album Jagged Little Pill, which included the popular hit Ironic, said, “The depression piece inside PPD, unfortunately and fortunately, I was familiar with it. It was all the other stuff. It was the invasive thoughts and the terror. All I could picture was death and terrible things.”
The singer reflected on her mental health struggles, saying she’s “happy” to be back. She expressed, “The bummer for me inside PPD was that I was losing people’s trust in my sanity. That’s a bummer.” And further explained, “When I have spent my whole life attempting to establish to the people I love that I’m safe and that I’m predictable, and all of a sudden I wasn’t. That was a loss because people looked at me differently. They looked at me like I maybe couldn’t be trusted.”
Morissette told Cooper that she called her postpartum depression struggles “postpartum activity” because it felt like more than just depression. Morissette said each experience with postpartum depression became harder for her. She explained that her strong desire to meet her children gave her a reason to keep going. She said she felt like she had become “another person,” as her hormones went all over the place.”
The singer shares Ever, Onyx, and Winter with her husband, Mario ‘Souleye’ Treadway. The couple welcomed their children in December 2010, June 2016, and August 2019, respectively. The hip-hop artist met Morissette in 2009, and they married in 2010.
