Chrissy Teigen’s Confession About Postpartum Depression at Work Will Make You Emotional
You may not think you have a lot in common with someone like Chrissy Teigen. For starters, she’s a model and actress who regularly gets the red carpet treatment. And of course, she’s married to John Legend.
But her raw honesty about most things in her life (see, for instance, her Twitter handle and her post on Feb. 28 about the best DM ever) makes her, well, relatable. And this week she earned our respect by sharing what life was like as a brand new working mom with postpartum depression.
In a long, worthwhile confessional she penned for Glamour this week, Teigen talked about what it was like to go through postpartum depression and how it not only affected her relationships at home, but also those at work:
"I wanted to write an open letter to friends and employers to explain why I had been so unhappy. The mental pain of knowing I let so many people down at once was worse than the physical pain. To have people that you respect, who are the best in the business, witness you at your worst is tough."
She describes what she felt like when she went back to work after she had her baby daughter, Luna. Luna was four months old at the time, and Teigan recalls being treated so well by her employers. She had the ability to taking pumping breaks and had a makeshift nursery and family photos in her dressing room -- but she still found herself short with people and under-performing by historical standards.
Like many women who experience it for the first time, Teigen did not initially realize she was suffering from postpartum depression. If you’re a new mom return to the workplace after having a baby, there is a difference between feeling emotional about all the new changes happening and postpartum depression, which is a medical condition that one in seven women experience in the United States.
If you suspect you have postpartum depression, we hope you can get some professional medical attention before deciding whether (and how) to tell your manager and colleagues. While Teigen explains that being open has helped her, we believe what you share is very personal and the same advice doesn’t apply to all women.
But know this: you’re certainly far from alone. Chances are, someone in your life has experienced postpartum depression. As Teigen said, “Postpartum doesn’t discriminate.”
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