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11 Celebrities Who Battled Postpartum Depression
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Beyond baby blues
About 13% of women who give birth develop postpartum depression, a serious, long-lasting condition that's more than just "baby blues."
Postpartum depression can happen to anyone, even the rich and famous (and new dads too). Exhaustion, sleep deprivation, and other stressors take their toll.
These celebrity moms shared their postpartum depression with the world, despite a cultural stigma against discussing motherhood in less-than-glowing terms.
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Hayden Panettiere
RELATED: 10 Signs You Should See a Doctor for Depression
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Brooke Shields
Shields put postpartum depression front and center in 2005 when she , who had criticized her use of antidepressants after the birth of her daughter Rowan.
Shield talks frankly about her extreme, sometimes suicidal, feelings in Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression ($10-32; ).
"If I had been diagnosed with any other disease, I would have run to get help. I would have worn it like a badge," Shields told magazine. "I didn't at firstbut finally I did fight. I survived."
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Amanda Peet
"I think it was because I had a really euphoric pregnancy."
RELATED: 10 Things to Say (and 10 Not to Say) to Someone With Depression
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Valerie Plame Wilson
In the book Fair Game ($6-10; ), Wilson, the world's most famous "outed" spy, talked about being a CIA operativebut also dedicated a chapter to her postpartum depression.
She described crying uncontrollably and suffering from anxiety and panic attacks during that period, according to the . She wrote: "My abilities to cope, problem solve, and adjust to new situations, abilities that had served me so well, were beyond my reach."
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Courteney Cox
"I went through a really hard timenot right after the baby, but when [Coco] turned 6 months. I couldn't sleep," the actress said. "My heart was racing. And I got really depressed. I went to the doctor and found out my hormones had been pummeled."
RELATED: 12 Signs You May Have an Anxiety Disorder
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Kendra Wilkinson
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Marie Osmond
In her 2001 memoir Behind the Smile: My Journey Out of Postpartum Depression ($10-38; ), Osmond detailed her battle with depression following the birth of her son Matthew, the youngest of her eight children.
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Bryce Dallas Howard
Howard cried daily, wasn't able to eat, and lashed out at her loved ones. "[My husband] would ask what he could do to help, but knowing there was nothing he could do, I screamed expletives at him, behavior he had never experienced in the seven years we had been together," she wrote.
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Gwyneth Paltrow
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Carnie Wilson
Wilson told magazine, "I cried all day over everything."
"It's a physical feeling. I don't know how to describe it. You're overwhelmed with love and joy, then sadness and fear. You're so afraid you're going to fail this baby," she said. "What if you drop her or hurt her? She's totally dependent on you and it's scary."
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Lisa Rinna
"I had visions of knives and guns. I made Harry (husband Harry Hamlin) hide all the sharp knives and take the gun out of the house because I had visions of killing everybody. Now how horrific is that?" she told .
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By Ashlee Davis Ashlee Davis